SAO - The Ghost
by SecondComing02
Summary: Within the scout group lies Nobusaki. With unrivaled speed, stealth and agility, he makes it out of the boss room, every single time. No matter the odds, the boss, the dungeon. He will survive. Because he has to. Win by the skill of your blade and the speed of your feet. Rise, and stand up against the worst that SAO has to offer. AU, T for Language.
1. Chapter 1: Initiation

**Sword Art Online: The Ghost**

Chapter 1: Initiation

* * *

' _Welcome to Aincrad. The most sophisticated and most immersive video game simulation up to today. Developed by Akihiko Kayaba, prepare to enter a literal world of dungeons and dragons. Choose your destiny, forge your way through the epic adventure and party with your companions in order to cut down any who dare to stand in your path.' – SAO Cartridge Box_

* * *

 _Oh yeah. Oh yeah. This is really happening. THIS IS REALLY FUCKING HAPPENING._

Nobuki had to restrain himself from ripping up his bed in sheer excitement from holding the SAO cartridge in his palm. After that gruelling 3 days of waiting… He did it. And not a single second too soon. He literally grabbed the last one in the store. And by grabbed, I mean fought through a bloody swathe of hungry customers. Seriously, if they were like this on the release day, Nobuki shuddered to think what they would be like on Black Friday.

His hazel eyes gleamed in his bedroom, as he gleefully popped the game into his Nervegear's console.

This was his first full-dive into the world of… anything. Aincrad would be his first experience and first taste of the 3D world that bloggers and gamers around the world practically salivated over.

 _Whew. Alright. Let's fucking do this, holy shit, I'm so excited!_ Putting on the Nervegear was as easy as it was comfortable. Slipping it on as if it were custom made. Easy as pie. There was a strand of dirty blonde hair in his face, but he flicked that out of the way.

"Link start!" The words echoed throughout his bedroom, containing the sheer excitement and anticipation of the lithe teenager.

Streaks of colour attacked and flew by like a lightspeed effect from Star Wars. With the lines around the windows, and the whole zooming forward thing? You know, when they hop galaxies? No? Nobody?

Alright then… Moving along…

Anyway, it was essentially that except with 10 times more colour. But soon after, a black void encompassed him. Was it meant to feel this empty?

The surrounds of his locale were nothing but pitch blackness, and he could spin around, feeling as light as air. It was an unusual sensation. He couldn't feel his body. He could control it, and he could see it… But it didn't feel like it. There was no weight behind each step… No sway behind each swing of his arm. More of a sensation in his brain. Sighing, he knew was going to have to get used to this kind of feeling. Maybe the game compensated for it with some sort of weight model. Either way, he breathed a sigh of relief when a blue semi-transparent screen just appeared in front of him.

"Wow. This is the real deal." Reading through the menus and tutorials was boring, but necessary. It was his first time, after all. Safety manual after safety manual and demonstration pelted his brain with what he thought was unnecessary and timewasting information.

All he learnt was trivial things such as how to reset the Wi-Fi connection in game, how to logout, how to contact the support desk, etc. But he was relieved to have some sort of distraction from his desolate environment.

After a good 15 minutes of contract signing and reading Ts & Cs, he managed to finally, boot up Sword Art Online.

The loading screen was more of a loading hub, where one could meander and walk around. It was an invisible platform, high above what Nobuki assumed was Aincrad. The legendary kingdom of swords and monsters that many a gamer had been dreaming of. Honestly, the shock of him experiencing this marvel of technology hadn't really hit him yet.

He sat down, legs hanging over the side rail, basking in the rejuvenating rays. It was a complete polar opposite to the dull and empty tutorial room. According to the position of the sun, it was either sunrise or sunset. Nobuki was hoping for the latter, as it would mean that it would be easier to explore that… thing.

It was like an extremely fat and grey spinning top. Ridges and groove were unevenly implanted within the whole structure to separate what Nobuki assumed were the 100 floors. What was most odd was the ringed spikes floating around Aincrad. Perhaps they were secret dungeons or isles? It wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing piece of architecture, but then again, it wasn't designed to be look at. It was designed to be explored.

One odd thing was at the top, where it converged into a single point, there seemed to be a red spire. Squinting his eyes, Nobuki attempted to glance at it, trying to discern its nature. But unfortunately for him, the sunlight was too potent and merely got in his way.

His glasses were practically useless at this point. Taking them off, he placed them on top of his head and kept them there. He was long sighted, after all. Maybe his glasses were actually getting in the way.

Turns out, they were. Aincrad became much more defined and much more sharper as the lenses lifted. But yet again, he was foiled by the sunlight.

Oh well, it's not like that place would be locked off forever, right? He'll get to see it eventually. Reeling back, he put his glasses back on and sighed. Perhaps Aincrad wasn't to be admired, but the clouds rolling over and around, the sun rising or dipping, he still wasn't sure, as well as the occasional dragon or bird made for one impressive sight.

This is what he wanted. This is why he fought tooth and nail for that box.

He would've been content to sit there for another few minutes, but finally, another screen appeared.

'Congratulations, and thank you for purchasing Sword Art Online! Please enter your name.'

 _My name, huh? Never really gave that much thought…_

Jason Nobuki. Nope. Besides, calling himself Jason made him sound weird and foreign. Maybe… Viper? Someone's probably taken that… Nobusaki? Hey… That wasn't too bad. Like Nobuki and Nagasaki… His birthplace. Nice… He could live with that.

Yeah. The more he repeated it, the more it sounded appropriate. Yeah… Yeah, I'll take Nobusaki.

Tapping on the empty box, he quickly typed in Nobusaki. 'Are you sure? This name CANNOT be changed.'

With a smile on his face, he quickly pressed the blue circle.

A familiar loading spiral appeared in front as a loading bar finally finished 'downloading package 689/689'.

Then… The platform disappeared.

Freefalling through the air was Jason Nobuki, now dubbed 'Nobusaki', at a pace even professional skydivers would have been jealous of. The air ruffled through his thin t-shirt and pants and dirty blonde hair before he managed to stop screaming. Closing his mouth, although with a bit of difficulty, he managed to conquer his fear.

Eventually, his initial shock and surprise turned into thrill and joy. "Woohoo! Aincrad, here I come!" A green patch slowly came into view, as it drew closer, he realised it was… grass. Nice, soft, lush grass.

 _Wow… The textures look really realistic. That's so cool! Wait, why aren't I slowing down?_

 _Thud._

That was how Nobusaki entered the game. With a several hundred meter faceplant.

At least the pain absorber was at 50% otherwise he probably wouldn't ever be able to move his face without crying again. "Aeugh… Seriously… Fuck you, Kayaba…" So much for a good start. This was going to take a while.

'Please customise your character.' Finally! Oh, thank god. It seriously took this long to get to character customisation. Kayaba, get your shit together. Then again, Nobusaki didn't really mind. Considering his journey here was just basic admin and prep work, he couldn't wait for the actual game.

"You know what? I think I'll make it look exactly like me." He said aloud to no one in particular. So, he began to work, setting his height of 172, his short, croppy and kind of messy hair, from the fall that it took to get here. Hair colour, yeah. Golden with streaks of brown, thanks to his father's American heritage. A slightly muscular build, but nothing too special. Semi-large nose, sharp eyes and thin lips. A very faint outline of a six-pack… Very faint, okay? A bit less skinny… Seriously, the base avatar was like 5 sticks and a head.

He only just noticed the background music, cheerfully humming along as he finished touching up the bridge on his nose. Yeah, he was going that deep. But after about 30 minutes of solid concentration, he did it. Looking into the mirror… Yeah, it worked. It was a 1 to 1 replica. He never had considered sculpting, but maybe when he logged out, he'd maybe take a class or two. Sure, it probably was more difficult than pinching or pulling on a guy's butt cheek to determine the appropriate width for his, uh… Gluteus Maximus, but maybe 3D modelling could do things like this.

'Are you sure you want this as your avatar?' He pressed confirm without any hesitation.

'Please wait as you are loaded into Sword Art Online.'

White light enveloped the customisation room and Nobusaki merely grinned in glee. Oh, boy, oh boy. This was gonna be fun.

Eventually, the light faded to reveal… A town.

A medieval town. Complete with bustling community, merchants and housing.

Stone alleyways snaked in between the large and rickety houses. Merchants and stalls lined the sides, selling goods and wares, ranging from level 1 knifes to exotic potions. The cobblestone pathway clicked underneath the sounds of hooves as horses and whatnot traversed the main road. As he swiped down, he managed to get a view of the time. 6:45 AM. So it was a sunrise that Nobusaki was witnessing. Awesome.

Nobusaki didn't really feel wonder and shock anymore. The whole introduction process kind of robbed him of all that. But nevertheless, it did feel quite amazing, walking through a digital plane unlike any seen before. It was literally one-of-a-kind in that moment. Glancing down, he noticed his white shirt was covered in some light, but fairly protective iron armour. Probably provided the most minimal defence, but he was a level one after all…

Slowly, he strolled out of the plaza, head held high. Without even noticing it, he had left the safety and protection of the town for a quiet, lush plain. Hills and valleys rolled out in front of him like a carpet, trees dotted the plains here or there as a river sped through the valley. This was quite a formidable achievement. For all the cussing, he did at Kayaba's lengthy intro, no one couldn't deny the sheer quality and detail that had been placed into this. If this didn't win Game of the Year, Nobusaki didn't know what would.

A snort had broken him out of his thoughts. _A snort? What kind of person would be as rude as to just…_ Snort? Then the sound of hooves. Coming towards him. At a very fast pace. Oh. Shit. Whilst it may have merely been the hooves pushing against the ground, to him it sounded like thunder, warning him of his impending doom.

He barely had enough time to turn around just as a sizable boar smashed into him at full speed. Woah! Knocking him off balance, he simply fell to the ground as that… thing trampled him. It was large, no doubt about that.

Black fur, as dark as charcoal covered it from head to toe. Ruby eyes, gleaming as bright as the sun. White long tusks that looked strong enough to puncture steel and hooves as aggressive to match. This wasn't going to end quickly… He knew that for sure.

After all, how does one kill a boar, the size of a small car, with a rusty short sword?

A blue flash zips by, creating a glowing red line on the side of the boar. Explosion. Polygons and pixels fly into the air as the boar that previously stood tall disappeared into the air.

"You alright?" A short, black-haired teen stood before him, offering a hand. Black eyes met his hazel ones and Nobusaki gladly accepted it.

"Yeah, thanks for that. You, uh… You seem like you know what you're doing, huh?" His Japanese was alright. Not perfect, mind you, but definitely good enough he could pass for a native. Besides, he did use it on a daily basis. Admittedly, English was his first language, but it's not like anyone was checking, right?

His 'saviour' chuckled softly, before blinking quickly. "Yep. Name's Kirito. I was a beta tester."

"Ah… That'll be it. I'm Nobusaki. How far did you get?" Shaking the offered hand with a firm grip. Even though they had literally just shaken hands, he could tell that he was going to like this guy.

Another familiar explosion broke them out of their stupor. "Kirito! I did it! Yahoo!" A much older looking guy danced around, waving his sword in the air, performing several extremely atrocious 'dance moves'. Kirito was obviously trying very hard from restraining from facepalming. Not at the achievement, mind you, but rather the, uh… 'Celebration', if one could call it that.

"Yeah… Hehe… Good on yer, Klein! Keep it up!" Nobusaki merely looked on the situation with interest and amusement. So, there's two of them… Clearly that guy _wasn't_ in the beta test. Nice to meet a rookie. Nudging Kirito's side, he looks at him sideways. "Hey, is there like a photo tool? Or maybe even a video camera?"

"Yeah, why do you… Oh… That's actually a really good idea." Kirito's eyes widened at the potential thought of blackmail material. Not that he would ever use it. He was too kind-hearted and noble for that. Nobusaki, on the other hand…

Flicking down the menu, Kirito placed his view centred on Klein and took several screenshots. "Alright. I'll need to friend you if you want these."

"Hell yeah, I'm down with that!" He gratefully accepts the invitation before receiving 4-5 very nice photos. Oh, if he ever met this dude in real life, he was going to make this guy's life a nightmare.

Klein trudged over, before cocking his head sideways at the new member. "Eh, who's this? Got a new protégé already, eh, Sensei?" With a mock bow on the word 'Sensei', Klein cheekily grinned and placed his hands confidently on his hips.

"I wouldn't be too confident if I were you, _Klein_." Drawing that word out with a grin, he showed the photos to the prodigy dancer.

Klein immediately paled in fear at the blackmail material. "Woah, woah. Now, now… Let's not be hasty… Hehe…" Flicking through, there were photos of Klein doing the chicken, Walking Like an Egyptian, one of the Robot, a failed attempt of the Worm and finally air guitar.

"Wow… You really know all of the classics, huh? Care to teach _me_ some moves, Sensei?" Once again, a mock bow from Nobusaki. Kirito burst out into laughter whilst Klein turned as red as his hair.

"Uh… Never mind." Sighing, Klein slouched over." A thud on his shoulder made him look up. Nobusaki was merely giving him a friendly pet.

"Don't worry about it. I'll only use them if necessary. Name's Nobusaki." Offering a hand to his victim, he decided he'll keep those for later.

Klein straightened and gladly took the hand with a half-smile. "Klein. But you knew that already. You new here too?"

"Yep. Literally grabbed the last copy in my store. That intro process is long as hell, huh?"

"You know it… But it's definitely worth it."

"Amen to that, brother." Offering a fist bump, Klein took it with ease and Kirito shook his head at their antics. This is gonna be a long day.

2 hours later, both Klein and Nobusaki were reaching new heights with Kirito as their teacher. Both were far from the best, but definitely had enough of a head start to distinguish themselves from the majority of players.

Klein finally broke the session by asking the two, "Alright… Phew. It's getting pretty late now, huh? I gotta get outta here… I've got some pizza and root beer coming around at 5:30. I'll log out, but then I'll be back in."

"Wow, you really went all out, huh?" Kirito asks as he slices through another boar with relative ease.

"You know it, I want this to last forever! Alright, see you guys!"

Nobusaki yells out a simple, "See ya later, Klein!" As he tries to parry two boars.

A minute later, Nobusaki slides his blade into the rib of a boar and it shatters into a million pieces. "Finally, I'm done for today." Glancing around for Kirito, he notices that him and Klein are in a discussion.

 _Wait, Klein? Wasn't he supposed to log out like a minute ago?_

"Yo Klein! What're you still doin' here?" He rushes over, eager to see what's going on as he sheathes his sword.

"I dunno, the logout button isn't there. I can't find it on my menu." Glancing over, confusion written all over his face.

Waving him off, he pulls down his menu. "Ha! That's a good one. Nice try though, here. Look at min… Wait what?" There is an empty space at the bottom. Blankness encompasses the bottom. Nothing. Resume game, Inventory, Friends list, Messaging, Settings, Contact GM… But no Logout? He quickly flicks through the settings menu. There's gotta be something, somewhere…

His mind was going into a bit of a panic? Seriously, Kayaba? You can make 3D boars that can whip my ass and act like real boars, but you can't put a Logout button in the menu?

Nope. Nothing. "Have you contacted a GM?" He looks up, panic slowly rising within him. But, he's very good at suppressing it, and swaps it with confusion.

"Yeah. No response."

The trio falls silent at this point. So… What now? They were going to die in here? You're kidding me, right? No… That's just wrong. Seriously… It's not funny, Kayaba.

 _Ring._

 _Ring._

 _Ring._

Three bells ring out across the entire land. Instantly, the grass and trees are replaced with a sea of confused players and wooden housing as they teleport to the starting town.

However, unfortunately, Nobusaki was unknowingly separated from the others. "Guys, what's… Guys? Oh, you're fucking kidding me. Klein! Kirito! KIRITO!" He tries shouting, but there's nothing. Merely more shouting as people attempt to orient and relax. But due to the unknown nature of their situation, it doesn't take long before chaos and confusion run amok. The whispers of the lack of a Logout button, people being separated and yelling for one another amongst the crowd all contribute to the increasingly more frightening atmosphere of the plaza. Nobusaki was no exception.

He continues yelling until his voice is as hoarse and dry as a desert. But a name reaches his ears. "Klein! Klein, where are you?" On instinct, he pushes through the swathes of people that stand in his way to find the source of that call.

Instead, he doesn't find the familiar red-head, but rather a group of 5 people desperately calling for Klein, asking around for people. "Hey! I know Klein! Hey!"

He waves and shouts, attempting to get their attention before one of the 4 points in his direction. _Yes! Maybe these guys can help me!_

"Hey, do you know Klein? Tall, red-headed, stupid around girls?"

 _Stupid around girls? I'll have to keep that for later…_

"Yeah… Yeah… Whew." He bends over, hands on his kneecaps, trying to catch a breath as the others look down on him, pleading for answers. "I know Klein. But I don't know where he is. He's most likely with a short black-haired guy, name of Kirito. I was with them… But I, ugh… I got separated. I can confirm he's here and alive."

Whilst that did bring some relief to the group, it wasn't enough to erase the panicked expressions on their faces.

People begin to break down into tears, sadness and anger infect everyone like a plague, sweeping amongst people and causing mass hysteria. This is not a good time. This… This is madness. Wasn't the point of an MMO to bring people together and to have fun, slaying monsters, levelling up and generally kicking ass? Kayaba… Seriously… What could be going through that head of yours?

As the grip of insanity begins to claw away at peoples' heads, a large hooded figure appears. "Players… Welcome to Sword Art Online. Many of you may have noticed, that your menus are lacking a Logout button. This is not a bug or glitch. This is how SAO was originally designed." Gasp after gasp after gasp. There seemed to be no end to this. It was like a Mexican wave of shock.

After the initial wave of confusion came the simply question, "Why?" And what a good question indeed.

The hooded figure eventually went on about introducing himself as Kayaba, but at this point, Nobusaki was merely zoned out, just staring at the ground in utter shock. He bought this game to be the ultimate experience. The one thing that would've made his life worth living. And ironically, it was the thing that would take his life away.

After the hooded figure disappeared, many had begun to change appearances. People had morphed into their real-life bodies. Those who had been hiding behind buff disguises or cute avatars were exposed. This had become more than a game. This was their new reality. A notification popped up into his HUD. 'New Item in Inventory.' Huh. This must be what was changing all of those people. Nah. No need. He was already how he looked. What would be the point?

In a flash, Kayaba had disappeared. Silence for a second. Then chaos. How amazing that humans could go from one state to the other in but a mere fraction of a second. People were simply clambering out of the town, trampling one another. Wow. This must be the phenomenon called 'Mass panic'. What a horrific sight.

Nobusaki stood still. Simply ignoring his surrounds before one of the 5 he had met up with yanked him and shook him by the shoulders. "Hey, kid! You still with us?" A simple nod was all he gave, but it was enough for the man who had introduced himself as 'Harry One'.

"Okay. First priority, find Klein. We have to find our guild leader. Second, figure out what is going on and how to deal with it. Got it?" Confident nods and grunts from all except Nobusaki. But everyone ignored him, for they too were battling with their inner demons and feelings.

A hand reaches his shoulder and gently taps him back to Aincrad. "Yo, kid. Thanks for your help. We really appreciate it. If ya like, you can come with us, seeing as how you know Klein anyway."

Nobusaki's eyes widened and nodded. Finally, he seemingly broke out of his stupor. A grin appeared on his face as he realised, he wasn't alone. None of them were. It was funny, how in that sea of 10000 people, it felt like there were really only about 8. Even if 2 of them were missing, he still knew that they were there. Him, Klein, Kirito and Klein's friends. It's odd how crowds can do that.

As they trudged outside the gate of the plaza, one man who introduced himself as Dynamm pointed towards an alleyway. "Hey! I see Klein! Guys, come on!" Immediately, the group stopped looking and sprinted over to were Klein was waving for them. Jumping up and down, Nobusaki spotted only Klein… Wait, was Kirito also separated from Klein when they teleported? Oh, for fucks sake, Kayaba.

"Hey! Guys! Over here!" Relief and happiness spread all over Klein's face as he eyed the incoming group. Picking up the pace, they continued their sprint towards their guild leader. Nobusaki and the others merely waved and kept running, glad to see a familiar face at last.

As they came to a halt in front of one another, Klein began to converse with his team. Clearly, they were people that went way back… _It must be nice having people you recognise here, even if you are stuck in this nightmare_... Nobusaki thought dejectedly.

"Oh, and you guys met Nobusaki? Awesome!"

"Naw, it was more a, he found us and helped us search for you."

Nobusaki glanced up with a grin and crossed his arms. "No problem guys. Glad to see you guys are together. By the way, where's Kirito?"

At this, Klein's face fell. "He, uh… He's gone." What? Gone?

Immediately, Nobusaki's mind went to the worst. Not this early, he didn't… die? How? There's no monsters… Oh god. Did he…? Commi…

"Oh, no, kid. Not like he died. As in, he wanted me to come with him, but I said I had to find you guys." That sentence was quickly tacked on, as Klein had noticed what he had just said and what it sounded like. Plus, Nobusaki's worried face was a pretty big giveaway as to what he was thinking.

Relief washed over like waves crashing on a beach. Thank god. Hands stopped shaking, his body stopped quivering. Sure, they had only known each other for a few hours, but they still felt like comrades in arms. Because, now they were. If what that thing calling itself 'Kayaba' said was true, now this world was their home. And whether they liked it or not… They were trapped. Stuck like mice in a 100-layer cage. Filled with killer boars and swords. Yippee-fucking-ki-yay.

Didn't stop the sinking feeling that the disappearance of Kirito had, but it was better than thinking the alternative. It would've been nice to at least have Kirito around. There was an air to Kirito. Like the atmosphere of a room calmed down when he was there. Because he just had that vibe of a trustworthy and honourable guy. It could just be Nobusaki, but he trusted Kirito.

Jesus. 3 hours and already he's romancing a dude. Seriously, Nobusaki… Get your head in the game. Literally.

"Alright guys, first things first. I have to teach you guys the ropes of combat in here. It's much harder, but also much cooler than you'd think. Come on, Nobusaki, you're my assistant."

"Wait, what?" Seriously? Wow. Thanks, Klein. If anything, it should be the other way around. After all, they had a mock duel when they were training, and Klein… how to say… got his ass kicked.

"Well, yeah. You're one of us now, aren't you? The Fuurinkazan. You are coming, aren't you?"

"Fuurinkazan? What's that? Is that your guild name?" Klein slapped his shoulder with some power, and Nobusaki yelped under the might of the strike. "No duh… So far, this is about it… Now are you coming or not, ya twerp?"

Huh. Yeah. Yeah, he was one of them. Maybe not brothers by blood, but certainly in arms. And by god, he'd follow these guys to the end of the world if god needed them too. Because that's what brothers do. Even if he'd known these guys for a few minutes. But in his eyes, he'd noticed the way they stayed cool and collected amongst the mess.

Obviously they were worried, but they managed to stay composed somehow. Impressive, considering the gravity of the situation they were in. Staying still whilst being threatened to be killed is no easy task. It made Nobusaki wonder, what did they do in the real world, to make them so prepared for situations like these? These guys were solid walls. Nobusaki respected that.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm coming." Each word became more solid and confident than the last.

"Alright. Welcome to the Fuurinkazan."

 **A/N: Apologies for any inconsistencies between the two universes, this is an AU fic, but I'm trying to make it feel as SAO as possible, so if any sort of really obvious mishaps happen, feel free to yell at me in a review. On top of that, I will make Nobusaki a bit OP, not to the extent of Kirito or Asuna. Actually, maybe… I dunno. Do you guys want that? Feel free to scold or appraise me… Criticism is always welcome.**

 **Cheers,**

 **SecondComing02**


	2. Chapter 2: Footsteps

**Sword Art Online: The Ghost**

Chapter 2: Footsteps

"Wait, where are we going again?" Nobusaki sat up on the couch as Klein stretched and yawned loudly. Seriously, Kirito could've heard that from wherever he was…

 _Probably with another guild… But then again, he always turns down our requests. Some bullshit about independence and whatnot. Lame._

Standing up for himself, he realised that his own limbs had gone numb, getting the familiar prickly sensation as the virtual blood flowed through his virtual veins once again.

It was strange, how Kayaba managed to implement the feeling of numbness from not using one's limbs for so long into the game. After all, what kind of developer pays attention to that kind of stuff? But then again, perhaps it was a nod towards the paralysis effect or some sort of little gag.

Nah. Kayaba didn't really have much of a sense of humour from what he'd gathered.

"The zone on floor 46. You know, the Anthill? It's probably one of the best levelling zones around."

Nobusaki sighed. More levelling. Seriously? Can't they just chill out for a while… Maybe go rare item hunting? Grinding was well… getting a bit old. All of them had managed to level past 40, with the lowest at 46. Nobusaki himself was the second highest, apart from Klein resting at a respectable 53.

Majority of his skill points had gone into the 'Parry' skill. Sure, it was an odd field to be an expert in, but it was perfect for someone as quick as Nobu. When glancing around at his party, it mainly composed of heavy, offensive combatants such as two handed sword wielders, katana users and other types of samurai weaponry. These guys were hardcore samurai followers. Just as their ancestors did, they wielded things that ranged from spears to Kunimittz's weapon of choice, the Kusarigama. A deadly chain sickle.

Nobusaki couldn't deny, it was the stuff of nightmares. Having a chain wrapped around you as a deadly blade slowly inched its way towards you wasn't something anyone could just shrug off.

The scariest part? Kunimittz was a natural, because he had one in REAL LIFE.

Who does that? Whilst it's part badass, it's also part terrifying. First of all, who invests time into learning how to use an ancient Japanese weapon, one that's not been used in centuries.

Then again, what's more terrifying is that there is one in Sword Art Online. Maybe Kayaba was a samurai fan as well. After all, there was a whole sword skill based around Katanas.

But, as much as he admired their enthusiasm for the old ways, Nobusaki just simply wasn't as dedicated as these people were. It's not that he despised being attached to a single tradition, if anything that was something to respect. No, it was his style of fighting simply didn't match the way of the Samurai.

It was commonplace throughout the guild to practise a style of Japanese weaponry, whether that be swordsmanship, spear work, etc. Klein, for example followed a modified style of Battojutsu. Obviously, with the inclusion of sword skills, Klein had added or changed up his move set in order to incorporate these, but the focus of timing, precision and distance were all still key elements of his almost surgical fighting style.

Nobusaki… was the complete opposite of this. His preferred style was aggressive, messy, rushed and meant to overwhelm the enemy as soon as possible. Whilst others would put up a shield, Nobusaki would attempt to charge in order to avoid the attack.

Whilst his style could be considered sloppy or undisciplined, it produced results, which was good enough for him. Admittedly, it wasn't a Japanese style, but since he had garnered the respect of his fellow guildmates, none really questioned or commented on it. After all, as long as he wasn't dead, what's the problem?

In terms of weaponry, Nobu wielded a Tanto, or a Japanese short sword. Technically speaking, it was a dagger, but this one seemed a bit too big to be called a 'dagger'. It served the same functions of one. Lightweight, quick to draw, able to slash and stab. Versatile, dependable and powerful.

In his right hand, or his weak hand, he used a very small shield. Yeah, yeah. He was left-handed. Get over it.

Back to his knife, appearance-wise, it was as if he was using a very large kitchen knife. Single-sided, a straight Mune, or back of the blade, a thin plate guard and wooden hilt wrapped in leather. In ancient times, the leather would've been used in order to fit the mould of the samurai's hands, but unfortunately Kayaba's knowledge of weaponry did not go that deep. As such, it was still comfortable, but not quite an exact replica. Oh well. Details could only go so far in a game this sophisticated.

Statistics wise, it was quite weak. After all, a 35-cm blade wasn't going to do much damage. But this was more of a large knife. As such, Nobu wielded it with a reverse grip. Despite the fact that it was a weapon, it was used as a type of shield more often than not. Since the blade rested against his forearm, if he needed to block he could let his blade absorb the impact, as opposed to the wrist absorbing the shock if he were to block using a normal grip, meaning that blocking was usually easier and more energy conserving. Unfortunately, the advantages to a reverse grip only went so far. A normal grip usually provided much longer reach, a larger swing radius and more power. Since in a reverse grip, the pinkie is the holding force on a knife, a reverse grip was also much weaker and less stable if attacking.

However, for obvious reasons, it was much better for stabbing and poking an enemy. Not many would swing in an upward motion. No, it would be better to bring a blade down towards the Earth, with the assistance of gravity. Reverse grip also allowed for tricky duel-wielding manoeuvres. But Nobu wasn't very good at those. Nor was he actually capable of duel-wielding knives. If only that were a thing.

Besides stabbing, reverse grip simply looked cooler. Everyone wants to look like a badass in the heat of battle. So, big plus to reverse grip.

But, it wasn't as if he were incapable of using the normal grip. If anything, the normal grip was his preferred style. More power, accuracy, stability, more reach and more blocking strength, who could say no to that?

In his weak hand, he used a tiny Targe. It was a shield dating back to the Medieval Scots. Consisting of a thick, but lightweight iron alloy, it wasn't so much a defence as it was a tool for evasion. Because of its meagre diameter of 40 cm, barely longer than the knife, parrying was its forte. Thanks to its small size and physics, it wouldn't be very good at blocking. Absorbing that much impact over such a small space? Not going to happen. So, why not use its mobility and agility to instead diverge the attack away? Sometimes simply getting out of the way is much more effective than blocking.

Blocking is more direct and easier, but also harder to maintain as well as harder to issue a counterattack. With parrying, it required a bit more finesse and skill, but was definitely more worth it. The guige, or the strap that attached the shield to his arm, was made of pure leather; meaning that it was tight-fitting, comfortable and not going anywhere. Even on things such as bosses who carried blades the size of refrigerators couldn't hit the quick-footed figure. Speed was his game, and boy was he good at it. Whilst he didn't have the strength of Klein or the technique of Kunimittz, he bet he could beat any player in a 100-meter dash.

His motto: Win through the skill of your blade and the speed of your feet. Nobu would take those words to the grave.

Thanks to his unparalleled speed, he had earned the title of 'Head Distraction' as his guildmates called it. The reason it was so crude, is because… Well that's exactly what he was.

Often on the field he would run rings around his opponents whilst the others moved in for the kill. It was the world's deadliest game of 'Tag' and Nobu would never get caught. He couldn't afford to.

Eventually, he managed to develop his own style of combat, of both reverse and normal grip; however, he only used that for self-defence. Normally, he'd leave that up to the hard-hitters of the guild. By combining moves he had seen from other knife users, as well as what he had learned from his ex-military father.

 _Shit… Mum, dad. Sis. God only knows what they're going through right now._ Ever since he had joined the Fuurinkazan, he had been having dreams about his family. It was much better than what some others had been going through. Some people he had met at bars or on raids reported having constant nightmares for days on end at the thought of abandoning their family. Some more so, because they were the source of their incomes.

Damn… How could Kayaba do this? Did he even think about those who didn't purchase the game and those around those who did? Kayaba essentially stole lives away from the real world. And Nobu didn't know which was worse. Knowing that they were still alive and might not return, or just killing them off the bat.

He had seen some perform the latter. As soon as the announcement about the whole 'death game' scenario was made, several hundred had decided to kick the bucket. Reportedly they had started off with around about 10000. Now their numbers had dwindled to about 8000.

Nobu read in a textbook that Stalin once famously said: "When one man dies, it's a tragedy. When a thousand die, it's a statistic."

The sad thing is, he was right. It was easy to hide behind that large number and simply go, "Well, it wasn't me… So why should I worry about it?" But when he thought about it, it was as if those 10000 were dead anyway... At least to the outside world. In a way, they were battling a sickness. If they gave in, they would give up the ultimate price.

Their life.

But if they somehow found the courage and willpower to persevere, maybe… just maybe they'd make it out of here alive.

Shaking his head, he muttered, "I'll worry when I have time… For now, I need to focus on this world. First things first. Escape this shithole. Fuck you Kayaba." He hadn't noticed that the grip on his sword had made his knuckles go white.

"Yo, Nob-nob? You paying attention?"

Ah. Another thing about this world that he hated. The nicknames. Some bright asshole, most likely Dale but Nobu had forgotten by now, had one night randomly blurted out Nob-Nob after having one too many glasses of mead. Unfortunately for 'Nob-Nob', the others found this hilarious. Hence, his new name. Hooray.

On the bright side, it was creative. He couldn't deny that.

"Huh? Oh, yeah… Yeah, I'm good." He looks up and puts on a very strained smile. His mouth is as thin as paper as he tries to strain the corners of his mouth into lifting. The others clearly don't believe him, that much was obvious, but let it slide for the sake of their guildmate.

After all, they had to respect one another's boundaries. Such was the 'duty of a samurai' as Klein had put it. Honour and respect, blah, blah, blah. Nobu didn't really listen to that meeting and didn't really care, quite frankly seeing as how he didn't view himself as a samurai. But the others held onto every word like their lives depended on it.

 _Which in a way… They kinda did._

Dynamm merely shrugs it off and asks, "Anyway, who's turn is it to go into the market this time? I know it wasn't me, I did it yesterday." No one is quick to volunteer today. Honestly, Nobu couldn't' blame them. Dealing with the hassling NPCs, trying to find the best prices only to realise they're just going up, spending a load of Col that could've been used for other things, trying to squeeze through the other 8000 players, it wasn't the best job one could have. But if they were to go grinding tomorrow, they had to be prepared. It wasn't as if they'd go for a leisurely stroll on the level 1 floors and maybe go for half an hour. No, when the Fuurinkazan grinded, they grinded hard. Like 12 hours straight hard. It was commonplace for them to have 3 days of grinding a week, followed by maybe 1 day spent purely on the market, and the others for clearing on the front lines. On the rare occasion that they took a day off this strenuous routine, they'd spend it either all lounging around or all going rare-item hunting. They did everything together.

Because they were the Fuurinkazan. And when one dropped their blade, they all did.

Back to the guild house, Klein reluctantly stood up. "Alright, I suppose I'll go today. I haven't been in a while anyway." No one challenged him. Instead, they settled for nodding and grunting their approval. "Well? Any other takers?"

Silence.

"Ugh. Fine. I suppose I'll do it. Let's go, Klein." Nobu reluctantly stands up, his armour clunking along with him. Stretching again, he was clasped on the shoulder by Klein once again as Klein grinned.

"Good on ya, Nob-nob! Come on, the sooner we do this, the sooner we can rest!" The duo head out the door towards the level 46 marketplace. After all, they were going to grind on said level. Might as well get some intel whilst they were there. Trudging onwards towards their inevitable task, they warped in a flash of light at the gate.

Breathing out, he drank in the frosty surrounds. Crisp, pale snow fell from the heavens by the tonne. Flakes sticking to Nobu's armour and hair melted as he tried to scrape them off. It wasn't that they'd affect his durability or anything, he was worried he might get cold and some variation of Hypothermia. Well, if you could get Hypothermia in this game. Who knows? Kayaba had implanted the numbness of not moving your limbs for too long, so Hypothermia was definitely a possibility.

"Oi! Nob-nob! Come on, we got stuff to do!" Huddling over to where Klein was waving, he readjusted his sheathes absentmindedly, fiddling with his armour.

As mentioned previously, thanks to the nature of his job, his armour prioritised speed over anything else. A lightweight chest piece covered from his ribs to his shoulder, curving outwards in order to divert blades away instead of absorbing them full-on. Greaves on his arms and legs meant some very basic protection, but nothing too movement restricting. Apart from that, that was it. Nothing else. Except for a flashy robe [Robe of Silence] with a black hood, lined with gold from a rare boss drop that increased a person's agility by 20 points. Originally it was Dynamm who had dealt the last blow, but he decided that Nobu should have it instead, to optimise his agility, thus improving his ability to… you know, do his job. Plus, it came with an awesome passive of [Phase] – 10% chance to complete avoid all attacks/impact from an enemy.

It was quite eye-catching, golden lining against the silk black cape made quite the contrast. A golden rune was also imprinted on the back. This rune wasn't easy to come by. Many a blacksmith and weaver didn't have the skill level for custom made runes. So instead Klein and Nobusaki sought out a NPC by the name of The Tisserand, French for 'Weaver'. It wasn't easy. This information came from Argo herself. Unfortunately, as is Argo's nature, she demanded quite a hefty price for the location. Nobu promised to run an errand for her, as well as paying quite a substantial sum of Col.

In Nobu's mind Argo was a strange person. Whilst her auburn hair lead to some people in public calling them 'brother and sister' to which the latter would just flat out reject, they did share other similarities. Both made frequent contact with 'The Black Swordsman', both were mischievous but generous at heart. And both were very fast, sneaky, agile types. Argo wasn't one for combat, however. Many knew 'The Rat' for her sly but effective business dealings, brutal tenacity and as a dangerous person off the battlefield. On the battlefield, she wasn't much. Similar to Nobu, she wore a hood, and like Nobu, speed was their specialty.

Honestly, Argo just liked teasing Nobu about his name.

Even though Nobu wasn't a frequent customer, his guild was. And with that came a lot of heckling and poking fun of.

But as the trees bristled and brushed throughout the plaza, he found himself yawning in the middle of the day.

"You're kidding me, yawning now? You gotta get your sleep schedule straight, Snorlax."

With an indignant _Hey!_ At the pokemon reference, he followed close to Klein. Lights flickered on and off, looking more like broken neon signage on a store than decoration. But they still looked quite nice. Like soft candles, glowing faintly in a dark storm.

"Boo!"

Argo sent a strong heave into Nobu's back, pushing him over, face first into the snow. That girl could push. Slowly standing up and turning around, his face still masked by the night sky and his hood, he merely muttered softly, "Argo… You bastard."

"Yeah, that's me, Nobbles. Now, what can I get ya on this fine evening?" Nobu was one of the only people that Argo treated like a friend. Apart from Kirito and Klein, who were the only two who had even seen her pull her hood off, apart from Nobu, she was often very formal, business-like and demanding when talking to fellow players. Especially on the frontlines.

It may not've been obvious from her perspective, but all players who had heard of her deeds treated her with respect.

Except for Nobu, but you can kinda see why.

Straightening his coat and wiping off the melted snow, he turned to the smaller girl and ruffled her hair under her hood. "Evening. How many people do you reckon use the Ant Hill on a daily basis?"

"Noo… Donnn'ttt…" Acting like a little girl, she slid away from his touch. Which was impressive, because the majority of other people were trudging around, trying to get their boots out of the blanket of snow that covered the ground.

Sighing, she too straightened herself. "Well, that's gonna cost ya. I can tell you when the least players use it though, but it is only an estimate. So, how much is in Nobby's pockets today?"

Ignoring the ever-changing nicknames, Nobu opened up his menu and selected the inventory slot. Hmm. Just over 50000 Col. A decent amount. But was it worth it, spending money on something he probably could just ask for? I mean, that new throwing knife set in the window of the Blacksmith of the main boulevard looked pretty nice…

"Do I have to pay for it? Can't you let it go just this once? It's nearly Christmas…?" He tacked on quickly, hope in his voice.

Facepalming, Argo swatted him on the arm. "No, Noginog. That's not how business works. Get it through your thick head!"

More sighing. He seemed to do that a lot around Argo. Don't know why, though.

"Fine…" He mumbled as he stared at the white, empty ground. "I can give you maybe 4000? I'm saving up for a new shield. Hopefully I can get one made out of a decent speed-type metal."

With great disappointment, Argo opens up her trading menu. "Fine. No more, no less. Also, you're buying me dinner. You owe me for giving you such a bargain!" Her menu and his disappear as she draws up a timetable. Then, she waves Klein and Nobu over.

"Okay, over the last few days, I've noticed that the highest amount of players go from dawn to about 9 am, and from dusk to about 11. So, if you can rock it in earlier or later than that, that would be best.

"Hmm. Those hours were our strategy. Hit them before they wake up, hit them just before they knock off. "

"Welp, can't help with that, Nobsi. Anyway, you owe me, alright?" A cheeky poke in her side made Nobu give out an undignified yelp as well as quickly jumping to the side. Rubbing it softly, his robe shuffling along with his fingers.

"Alright… I'll give you your bloody dinner. Jesus, give me a break, alright? Christmas, no? Kids these days." Muttering that last part under his breath as he turned away, a slump in his shoulders as tried not to let Argo hear that last part.

"Oi! What did you call me!" And without another word, Nobu simply runs away without any indication. His deep, heavy and quick footsteps leaving obvious trails in the thick, soft snow. With great speed, he dashes in and out of alleys, behind shops, shoving and shuffling past other people who are casually chatting in the streets, celebrating one of the most important holidays to humans.

But, as he kept walking, there was something in his chest dragging him down. It wasn't an object… More of a feeling. A warm feeling. Certainly wasn't from the snow and the freezing weather. More of a… Oh well, didn't matter, he needed to focus on avoiding the terror known as Argo the Rat.

Footsteps… No, Argo, stay away… Argo?

Peeking his head around the corner, there was nothing. Just the cold, dark, twisting streets and cobble pathways. His breath faded as it became less and less frantic along with his heartbeat. The throbbing in his ear had stopped. Wow, and that was all from a 30-minute conversation with Argo? That girl really knew what could trigger him.

After all, she was one scary person.

Nobu didn't like hiding. It was like admitting to fear. Or running away from fear. No, his job was to run. Run rings around his enemies. Run head first into danger. Running was his life. And, often he found himself running for his life.

 _But then again, who isn't running from something?_

Nobu had always been a kind of procrastinator in the real world. Running from assignments, working and chores in order to make room and way for things he enjoyed more. But in the end, it all caught up to him. No matter what path he took, what speed he ran at and what he tried. Responsibility was a weird thing. His mother and father loved it. Because they could take the pressure and hold their heads high with failure. It was people like that that Nobu aspired to be.

When your blade got dull, you didn't buy a new one. You grabbed a rock and sharpened it the best you could. Then you pick yourself up and keep fighting. That was the kind of person Nobu wanted to be. But, the world is never that generous. Noone is born with the ability to wield a sword. You must nurture talent, watch it grow and let it blossom in the garden of the world. Such is the nature of learning.

* * *

Rolling over, he moved his head to find something against it. Something smooth, cold and hard. Blinking his eyes open, he realised it was a brick. Odd. Oh right, he was in that alleyway. He moved one foot in front of the other to eventually find his way to his feet. Leaning on said wall, he slowly walked his way out of the alley. He didn't remember how much time had passed. At one point, he had sure he passed out for a few minutes. Maybe there was hypothermia in this game. But nevertheless, he walks towards the street light in the distance.

To find Argo. Standing there. How long had she been there? Weird. Didn't matter.

"Nobu? Finally… I thought you were never going to come out." She nervously put her hands behind her, standing awkwardly in the Christmas snow.

Being Nobu, he didn't really notice. Awkward situations weren't exactly a specialty of his, but it wasn't as if he was dense or anything. Just kind of lost. Lost in a sea of unusual thoughts. What had this game done to the usually calm, collected boy that he was?

Enveloped in silence, the duo walked out of the alley. Raising his hand, he once again placed on his cold hood. It sent a shiver down his spine as the back of his neck came into contact with the virtually frozen material, but he didn't react. He merely kept on walking with Argo.

The market had somewhat simmered down after the alleyway episode. Glancing at the clocks in their menus, it was quite late. Majority of the lights in windows had gone out, holes that had once been footprints were filled in with snow.

It was as if the ground was a blank canvas, and nothing had yet to disturb it. But opening up his menu to retrieve something warmer, he notices the notifications from Klein and his guildmates.

'Where are you? We've been waiting for your intel. Plus, it's kinda late. Klein already came back with all the potions and supplies, so if you're buying some, don't bother.' Who knew Dynamm could spell so well?

Turning to Argo, he merely muttered a soft, "I've gotta go back to the guildhouse. It's kinda late. You head on home now, Argo."

Merely nodding, she slowly shifted her body away from Nobu and begun to walk away before he realised he had forgotten something. "Oh! How much do I owe you?" Swiping down and to his trade menu, he prepared to press 'trade'.

Pausing, Argo considered something for a second. She settled on something and turned back around. "Don't worry about the fee. Just… Treat me to dinner, okay? I have enough money."

And without another word, despite Nobu's protests and shouts, she dutifully turned around before walking off towards a local inn.

Nobu was happy for the free info, but also kinda burned. Why was she acting like that towards the end? Wasn't as if anything bad happened. Was there? Nah, she probably would've told him if there was.

The area around the teleportation gate was eerily quiet. Darkness reigned supreme and encompassed the area as Nobu disappeared in a quiet flash of blue light.

 **A/N: The ending was a bit soft in my opinion. I'll pick it back up in the next chapter. In my opinion the pace is a bit fast, so I'm working on trying to slow it down. Input and criticism is always welcome.**

 **Cheers,  
SecondComing02**


	3. Chapter 3: Beginnings

**Sword Art Online: The Ghost**

Chapter 3: Beginnings

As he raised his arm to deliver the final blow, he looked straight into the scarlet eyes of his opponent. With grace and the power of a lightning bolt, he brought his arm down in an arc, sliding his blade elegantly into the body of the ant in front of him. The sound of metal swishing though the air left a smile on Klein's face as his ripped his katana out of a [Fire Soldier Ant] once again.

With a sigh, he slouches over in exhaustion. "Whew. I'm beat. You guys?" The sound of polygons exploding and watching the blue triangles fading into the air filled Klein with glee. They had been grinding for a solid 10 hours now. Unfortunately, he'd have to send his katana to the blacksmith along with a hefty fee of Col, but he probably had enough from his session to cover the fees. Plus, Argo could probably find a nice, cheap one for him. And if everything goes to crap, he could just ask Agil.

Oh well, he'll do that later. For now, he had to regroup his guild and head back to town. They had done enough levelling. With a solid increase in about 10-13 levels a piece, everyone managed at least a content smile.

Statistics and skill points wise, they'll have a lot of allocating to do tonight. After all, who's going to put 20 points into [Perfect Parry] whilst chopping off an insect's abdomen?

Nobu, on the other hand, was sweating like a dog in heat. Water rolled off his body by the gallon, practically. Honestly, it was probably because he was wearing a full body robe.

Anyway, he sheathed his sword and slung his shield onto his back quickly, trying to work around his sweaty body. His sticky tunic didn't make it easy, but he made do. He opened his 'Skill Points' tab and began to read through the various new tabs that'd popped up, all representing new skills and abilities he could invest in. Majority were just abilities that he'd normally skip over, like [Whip Mastery] and [Arrow Recovery], but he did like the look of one called [Shield Toss]. Flicking down, he combed through the description: "Enables user to throw the shield towards an enemy for a short stun effect. Can be upgraded for a longer stun effect, ricochet ability and an auto-return property."

 _Oh yeah, this looks straight up my alley._

Immediately, he invested several points in it, before Harry One quickly grabbed his hand to stop him. "Dude, are you sure you want to spend that many points on a skill you literally just got? This ain't a typical game, you gotta invest in things with the big picture in mind, okay?"

Nobu brought a hand up to his chin, silently pondering things. Immediately, he continued to pour several points into his new ability.

Harry merely facepalmed and walked off, shoulders slumped. "I suppose that's your choice…" He mutters under his breath. He would never understand kids these days.

But Nobu did get his points under control. And after a few minutes of… uh, 'Careful allocation' of his points, he walked over to where his fellow guildmates were celebrating a successful session.

"Alright! Good job everyone! Now we'll be high enough to join the clearers!" This gained a massive shout of approval from the others present.

Joining the clearers had been their goal ever since the concept of clearing was even substantialised. After all, the prestige and positive publicity it would bring to your name was practically irresistible. Besides, for simply, honest, decent guys like the Fuurinkazan who just wanted to help around, the chance to save lives was something they jumped at to. Not for money, fame or resources, but to genuinely help people. It was one of the reasons that Nobu respected them.

Perhaps they weren't the most well-known of guilds, or the biggest, or the richest, or the best-equipped, or the highest levelled, or the most talented, or… Well, you get the idea. Anyway, they weren't the best, but they were definitely the most well-intentioned.

Saving people was a hobby for them. Whether it be a solo-player led astray, *cough* Kirito *cough*, or a bunch of players from a monster way out of their league, if danger was present, Fuurinkazan would try its hardest to cut it down with the edge of their katanas. Or the blade of their chain sickles, or the edge of their knives, or... Well, once again you get the idea.

Anyway, he walked over to where the rest were celebrating another day gone in the depths of a dank, musky, dirty cave. Stalactites and stalagmites erupted from the ceiling and ground respectively, like arrow heads in the ground. The dusty grey coat that the cave walls had was the shade of iron and like iron, reflected the faded light that came from their sputtering torches.

As the flames flickered and licked the thin air, Nobu was slapped on the back with great enthusiasm. The large hand that came into contact with his shoulder blades was enough to coax out an indignant yelp.

"Oi, little bit of warning next time, alright?" Dale merely laughed with great gusto, almost as great as his stomach.

Dale drew back his hand whilst Nobu softly rubbed his back and groaned once again. But aside from that, he was pleased. They were here. With numbers that could mean that they too burden the impressive load that the front lines give to those who are willing to step up.

As they knew all too well, even one player could mean the difference between losing no one, and losing everyone.

Funny how that works. Unsung heroes, guardian angels. These are the people we should be thanking. Not those who organise strategy meetings in a dark tent, hiding behind the waves of blades that are courageous enough to step up to the plate.

In this game, the sword was mightier than the pen. Probably because they didn't really have pens, but that's not the point. (Geddit? Point? No? Alright, I'll stop…)

But for those who couldn't wield a sword with as much conviction, they were the ones who this battle was being fought for. It was bigger than 7 dedicated pseudo-samurai huddling together in a cold cave.

And despite how tough and resilient man appears on the outside, in the grand scheme of things, he is but a memory, waiting for the phenomenon we call 'Opportunity' to come around, knocking on his door.

For the Fuurinkazan, he had been screaming and ringing the doorbell nonstop for the last few days, but always seemed to disappear as they approached the door.

However, now they could hear him clear as day. His attractive cry that promises rewards wasn't the reason they opened and invited him in. No, it was the fact that he was waiting for them on the doorstep that made Nobu drag and force himself to open the door.

Using a teleport crystal, they vaporised into a bright flash of blue before appearing in their familiar, roomy guild house. As his guildmates' fatigue finally took its toll on their worn-out bodies, Nobu merely pulled out a chair, disrobed and sat down. It had been a long day for the guild. That much was obvious. But as they all took off their armours and layers of protection, they started to head off, one by one upstairs to rest.

Soon, only Klein, Nobu and Harry were left. Eventually, Harry also departed with a fatigued smile and wave. Glancing over at Klein, it turned out that he was already kippered out and was snoring softly on the couch, a tiny drop of drool leaking onto his shoulder.

Shaking his head and smiling, Nobu decided that he wasn't tired enough for resting just yet, and instead typed a message to all the members in the guild.

'Hey guys, I'm gonna go out for a while, maybe be back in a few days. Just gonna visit some friends.'

This type of practise wasn't too uncommon. Wanting to leave for a few days was something any guild member could relate to. And to do it in the dead of night whilst your companions were unable to object or stop you was practically ideal. Sure, they could track you down or spam messages, but you were most likely so far away, it would be quicker for you to come home by yourself, than to split up, find you and then drag you back.

For Nobu, he was going to visit one of his best friends, Kirito.

And most likely Asuna, considering how they were practically glued at the hip. Despite how much they bickered and argued, there was a deep affection for one another. Even if they didn't want to admit it, thanks to their pride.

Asuna and Nobu had met when he found Kirito napping in a field with a pretty girl next to him. Nobu was walking along a stone pathway, drinking in the perfect scenery. It was the perfect postcard picture.

Sun angled high in the sky, not a cloud in sight and a blue sky that was pale and beautiful in all the right ways. Whilst he was slowly strolling along, simply to enjoy the weather, he sat down and brought out his weapon.

Not the Tanto, no. Actually, Nobu had come across a new item called [Dark Harbinger]. It was a top ranked knife that was as flexible and light as a sheet of metal. When he got this, back on floor 28, he hid it from his guild, knowing that they wouldn't really approve of him using a weapon not really suited for a Japanese warrior. Sure, it was a one-handed blade, and there were no shortages of those during Ancient Japan, but it had more of a Greek design than Japanese. Nobu knew the difference thanks to his overly enthusiastic 5th grade teacher who went on and on about weapons and warfare.

It was an elegant weapon, that was for sure. But it wasn't along the lines of [Elucidator] or anything else notable. Bringing it out, he watched as it materialised in his outstretched hand. Clasping it firmly, he stood up straight and walked out of the tree he was sitting under. Turning around, he gripped the handle firmly and swung it around experimentally. He'd have to invest his skill points into [Dexterity] if he wanted to get good with this weapon.

 _Well, provided the guys would let him use it._

It wasn't as if they didn't respect this kind of weaponry, but they just chose to stay away from it when possible thanks to the 'theme' of their guild. They didn't mind others using it, but they would never pick up a mace or a broadsword if they had the choice.

Anyway, he attempted a few moves and skills away from the prying eyes of his guild and found that whilst it was a better weapon than his current Tanto, [The Gakushuu] he still had a long way to go before he could use it as well as the Tanto.

Honestly, Nobu preferred [The Dark Harbinger] over the knife that his guild mates had given to him. It also had that aura of 'I earned this, I should be allowed to use it'. The sense of achievement he received from enduring that slog of enemy after enemy. That was another thing that really tied him to this blade. He had the same affection for it, one might have for an expensive car they saved up for.

Twirling it around in his fingers, he fiddled with the blade and eventually sheathed it on his belt before continuing on. Passing by heavily armoured men and casually clothed NPCs or players, he was enjoying his walk. This short vacation of his was one of the best ideas he had had in a long time.

But he spotted a very familiar black coated twerp lying flat out in the grass, his hair covering his forehead. Next to him lay an attractive girl clad in very familiar apparel. Hmm… Where had Nobu seen that before? It was on the tip of his tongue… Come on… Think. It's not the Dragon Alliance. Not the Knight… Oh wait.

Walking closer with his hands by his side, he leaned over the pair and blocked out the sun, casting a shadow over their eyes.

Yeah. Mostly white with red stripes, this girl was definitely from the Knights of the Blood Oath. Weird. What was someone like her doing next to Kirito, a player both awed and hated? Thanks to his 'beater' status, he wasn't exactly the most popular amongst high levelled players. And her gear just screamed 'clearing guild'. That rapier of hers, paired with a slightly scanty but agile set of armour. Yeah, she was most likely an [Agility] type like Nobu. Huh. Still, he couldn't get that feeling that he knew this girl.

Being Nobu, he shook Kirito awake and asked with amusement in his eyes, "Well, well, well, Kirito. Looks like the 'Black Swordsman' has another girl in his little collection…" Throwing in a wiggle of his eyebrows for good measure.

 _Thwack_. That earned him a smack in the face. Even with the pain absorber at full setting in SAO, it still stung and sent prickles throughout his face.

"Ow! What was that for?" He mumbled whilst rubbing his face. Kirito merely raised an eyebrow and smirked faintly.

"Good to see ya, Nobu. How's Klein?" He casually asked as if nothing had happened. That was one of Kirito's traits. Jerk.

Anyway, Nobu stretched before also flopping back into the lush grass. Feeling that softness of the blades and the warmth they had absorbed from the sun was amazing on his back. It was honestly better than real life. Then again, that was kind of the point of a video game, huh?

"He's good. Busy with the guild and everything. Who's that?" With a lazy hand, he raised and pointed it at the sleeping figure next to him, a drop of drool leaking out of the side of her mouth.

"Huh?" Apparently, he hadn't noticed Asuna sleeping either until just now. Reeling back suddenly, he brought a hand to his face in a facepalm and muttered, "I can't believe she actually feel asleep."

Nobu raised an eyebrow but didn't press further. He already had his fair share of girl drama in his life. He didn't need anymore. Shrugging, he once again lay back down. "Hey, can you do me a favour?" This propped a rushed 'Wha?' from Nobu as he quickly sat back up.

"Yeah, sure I suppose. What do you need?"

Kirito stood up and brushed off his shoulders and pants before pouncing like a leopard off the footpath. "Keep watch over Asuna for me! I'm going into to town to get lunch!" Was all Nobu got from Kirito's retreating figure. Maybe he said more, but it was lost as he watched Kirito turn into a black blur and disappeared up the cobble footpath.

Shaking his head all he could think was, _Goddamnit Kirito. You got me keeping watch over_ your _girl?_

Oh well, not much he could do now. Besides, he couldn't leave her defenceless. Leaving a girl to sleep in the open was bad enough. But now there was a new breed of Player Killers. The sleep PKers.

Sure, you couldn't inflict damage on people in safe zones except for duels, but all it took was for people to move your hand into accepting a duel whilst you were asleep and then they were free to do what they wanted with you as they pleased.

Whilst it wasn't the most honourable or ethical way of offing your opponents, Nobu couldn't deny that it was effective.

So, he stood up and sat on the wall of the paddock nearby. Bringing out a flask of water from his inventory, he began to take slow sips as he stared into the nearby forest. _Asuna, huh? That's a fancy name. Kinda familiar too._ _Wait…_

 _Knights of the Blood Oath, one-handed rapier, female, brown hair… Oh. Right. THAT Asuna. Lightning Flash._ Glancing over at her still snoring figure, he simply sat there and waited for something to happen now that he figured her identity out. Maybe some fireworks and a medal for working it out. But nope, nothing. Which was a disappointment; Nobu did enjoy fireworks.

Nobu never really understood the hype around 'Lightning Flash' and 'The Black Swordsman'. Sure, they were definitely good players, but they were human beings as well. It was easy to get lost in how highly levelled they were or how easily they could take down swarms of enemies, but given enough time, Nobu could reach those heights as well.

Maybe, it was because people wanted something or someone to believe in. Kind of like the Brad Pitt or the Morgan Freeman of SAO. You knew that these people existed and were out there and they required food and water to live, but it was still amazing when you met them.

It was a bit like when Nobu lived in America and went to one day have a look at the Liberty Bell. All he could feel was, _Really? That's it? It's just a church bell with a crack in it…_ After reading its history and admiring it from picture books, up close it just seemed small. Not worth the hype.

But Nobu simply sat there, staring. Sure, she was definitely cute, but not really his type. From what she had heard from Kirito and Agil, she was as stiff as a board and strict. Sure, that's probably because according to Agil, Kirito and her bicker all the time at raiding meetings, but he still had his doubts.

Nobu was after someone a bit more relaxed and less down to earth. Nobu was the fast one. He needed someone to tie him down and make sure he didn't go over the rails.

That's what he learned from his past relationships at least. As groups of players or mobs walked by, the sun began to droop down causing the sky to go yellow and orange. Red streaks painted the sky as Asuna began to stir. Unknown to Nobu who kept staring out, Asuna had stood up and regained her bearings.

However, another thing that Nobu didn't realise was how stealthy Asuna could be. Slowly, she wrapped her fingers around her rapier and with the dexterity of a pianist, slowly unsheathed her rapier silently, levelled it at Nobu's neck and gave a soft jab, like a cactus pricking Nobu's skin.

Nobu jolted forward before instinctively unsheathing his knife in one swift motion and turning around in an attack stance.

Oh. It was Asuna. And she was awake. "Who are you? And don't make a move with that knife, or else you'll see firsthand why I'm the second-in-command of the Knights of the Blood Oath."

Nobu relaxed a bit, but didn't slip his knife into his sheath, rather he merely flipped it up and down in his hand absentmindedly. "Oh. I thought you were a mob or a PKer. I'm Nobusaki. Friend of Kirito? He asked me to watch you whilst you slept." Sticking out his hand confidently, he took a step forward.

At his words, a chill rang down Asuna's spine. _He… He watched me sleep? HE WATCHED ME SLEEP?_ Was all that rang through her head, before it went into panic mode. Was this guy a pervert? No, please! Stay away from me!

Nobu was oblivious to as to why she suddenly had a panicked look on her face and backed away slowly. That's weird… It wasn't like he was an orange or a red player. Was it something he sai… Oh.

The 'watching you sleep' part. Whoops-a-daisy.

Letting out a nervous chuckle, he slowly sheathed his knife and put his hands in the air. "Okay, that was a bit of a bad intro. Let's start again. Hi, I'm Nobusaki, I'm a friend of Kirito who has gone into town. He asked me to protect you whilst you were sleeping from PKers and wanted me to ensure you didn't die before he returned. That better?"

Silence. Awkward…

Asuna merely gave a grunt and a _hmph_ in response. Honestly, he was grateful he didn't get stabbed or anything for that slip up. Closing her eyes, she sheathed her own rapier and folded her arms like a teacher about to punish you for something you said. Which wasn't that far from the truth, to be honest.

"Very well. If what you say is true, then I guess I should thank you. You haven't killed me yet, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

Inside her mind, she still didn't trust this 'Nobusaki' at all. He did look pretty shady, in a black robe with the hood down and wearing grey armour whilst sporting a vicious knife. It was quite nice, anyone could see that.

Imbedded within the hilt was a black sapphire, accentuated by the contrasting pure gold hilt. The carvings along the handle formed a dragon head, snaking (dragonning?) around. A leather grip meant the handle was soft and light on the grip, allowing for maximum movement.

With a slim edge and a blade as crisp as a razor, it was terribly well balanced. Asuna halted in her steps as her eyes wandered on to the blade.

"Is that a [Dark Harbinger] you have there?"

* * *

As Kirito slowly walked along the twining path, hands in his pockets he hears a familiar laugh slip into his ear.

He stopped in his tracks, trying to figure out what that sound was. It was pretty unfamiliar. Ever since he joined SAO, he hadn't heard much of it. It was laughter.

Good-old fashioned laughter. Not the type that you get from a laugh track off a sitcom, but the one when someone tells you a dad joke that you can't help but laugh it.

Laughter in its purest form. What a beautiful sound. Kirito wished he could just replay it in his head again and again. It was… feminine. And, it sounds like someone he knows.

Taking a peek over, he squints his eyes out of habit to try and get a better view. Slowly, he makes out two figures sitting down on the patch of grass, one chuckling as the other lies in the grass, telling a story.

Making some sort of funny face, the other person cracked up as one figure with messy blonde hair sat up. Oh. It was Nobu.

Wait… So, the laughing one was Asuna? Huh… That's so weird…

At that point, Kirito had only just realised he had heard her properly laugh for the first time. Sure, when they went on that level 1 boss raid she had chuckled a little bit, but that was probably just to be polite.

This was full on, 100% genuine, straight from the heart laughter. Filled with joy and excitement.

The last time Kirito saw that was… Well, the Black Cats. And… Look how they turned out.

Still, it was refreshing to hear something as crisp as that. A different voice called out, "Oi! Emo wannabe, get your butt over here!"

Clenching his fist at the nickname, honestly… Emo wannabe. Just because he likes black… What an asshat.

Merely smirking as he looked up, he cupped his hands and shouted back, "Alright, Nobby! Hold your horses!"

He can simply just imagine the red face on Nobu right now. If one were to draw a large nose, hazel eyes and golden hair on a tomato, you probably couldn't tell the difference between the two. And sure enough, when Kirito walked over, Nobusaki was desperately tugging at his collar, trying to wave off his blush as heat or some other bull crap excuse.

After a rushed greeting, Nobu stood up and took a backseat as Asuna yelled at Kirito, demanding to know why he left her side and had a stranger look after her ("No offense, of course." "Oh, none taken.") and seemingly skipped town for all she knew.

Whistling to himself, he watched as Asuna turned around, arms crossed and _hmph_ ing once again. She seemed to be quite proficient in that.

Bringing up a hand to Kirito's ear, he _very_ quietly whispered, "Dude, two things. Is she always like this, and how long as she liked you?" That second question was like a knife, striking out of nowhere. He was caught completely off guard and stepped back in shock, reduced to stammering.

"Wha-no… No, she… Shut up." Breathing out a meagre sigh, Nobu shrugs on the outside but screams with joy on the inside. Two can play at the embarrassment game.

Asuna turned back to the pair and flicked her hair over her shoulder, with the grace and air of a queen. A stuck up, violent and murderous queen, but a queen nevertheless.

"Very well. I need to return to headquarters. Nobu, it was nice to meet you." And she sets off without a word to Nobu's colleague, down the path.

At this point in the day, it had gotten quite dark. The sun was hanging low in the sky and on its last legs before its 12-hour rest. Stars had begun to twinkle and assume their positions in the sky. On the flip side, the moon slowly began its ascension.

As the two watch her disappear, Nobu turns back. "But dude, seriously. How long?"

 _Thwack_.

 **A/N: R &R Please. Cheers.**


	4. Chapter 4: Reluctance

**Sword Art Online: The Ghost**

 _Chapter 4: Reluctance_

Walking along, Nobu whistled a faint but sweet tune. The pebbles winded out before him like a carpet. A stone brick fence stood on the right, like a line of guards at attention.

With every click of his boot, Nobu breathed in and out softly, trying to inhale and exhale the fresh air. It was as stimulating and as refreshing to his mind as real air, if not more. It made him wonder how Kayaba achieved this. Even if he constantly scorned, swore and shouted at the injustice of his circumstances, he couldn't deny the impressiveness of it all.

If only Kayaba had included a 'Logout' option apart from dying that was nonlethal. He would've been renowned as a pioneer, or maybe even a hero amongst men.

Drifting his mind back to the dreaded town meeting, he remembered something.

The mirror.

Everyone else had instantly used theirs, but Nobu never bothered because all it did was change your avatar to what you looked like in real life. And considering this was how he looked in real life, it didn't matter.

But now that mirror was a symbol of his reluctance to look back. Whilst many had been quick to use it, to get it over and done with, Nobu didn't.

Funny how things like that happen. He noticed that those who like him, didn't use it all eventually did. Perhaps it was Kayaba's way to inserting people into his world. That was the beauty of the internet.

You could hide behind a screen or a Nervegear and never get discovered. Until now, of course. Kayaba stripped people of the anonymity so many were familiar with online. And now, we were all locked in this. But why drag their real persons into this?

Was it to give this world another layer of depth? To encourage people to be their real selves? To encourage people to give up all their secrets and become dedicated to this world instead of the real one?

Asuna had mentioned it in passing, but less and less people were eager to sign up and participate in boss raids nowadays. People would always say that they wished a certain movie or a video game were real.

Well, this is what it would be like. Not exactly the ideal paradise many craved. Nobu wouldn't be surprised if this incident turned people off VR forever.

To be robbed of one's rights to choose their life, to be thrust into a merciless world of numbers and code. Was Kayaba really a bad guy? Or just a guy who got what he wanted and accidentally created 10000 lives worth of collateral damage. Nobu wondered what he could possibly be doing.

Maybe he was playing as a character, or an NPC. That'd be kinda weird. Maybe he could be in the real world, being prosecuted or arrested for what he had done. Maybe he was using a Nervegear himself. That would be weird. To be so dedicated to your own dream you would imbue your own life to see it come to life.

Talk about dedication.

Unfortunately, life was never as black and white as people wanted it to be. But then again, if it were, why bother at all? The grey was the spice we call 'opportunity' or 'fate'. When you put it like that, it sounds adventurous, this thing we call 'life'.

To live and to keep moving on. To keep on taking that next step even if it means it's one closer to your death.

Nobu realised the extreme tangents he had just gone off on. His mind was as disorganised and in as much disarray as his bedroom. Well, provided no one came in. Most likely his family had and he was lying in a hospital bed.

But he couldn't worry about the real world now. He had to worry about getting out of this one first.

Cracking his knuckles, he sighed confusedly. Thanks to that weird philosophical blank, he had unknowingly ended up in a forest. Great going, Nobu. Great freakin' going.

Tilting his head to the side, he opened up the map of floor 27. Out of the corner of his eye, he had a glance at the time. Hmm… He had about 5 days until he would return to the gang and they would have their clearer's guild tryouts. Being the Fuurinkazan, they were most likely grinding or training for that.

If Nobu were there, he would most likely be battling someone, with sweat pouring down his forehead, gripping his Tanto and shield. Nah. He'd much prefer walking through a completely unknown forest and zoning out to contemplate life.

Hey, no one's perfect, alright?

Hm… April 12th, 2024. Currently, the front lines were at the 59th floor. Not a bad rate of progression. If they were to keep that up, they'd be out of the game by the end of the year, maybe a few months before.

However, according to Asuna, apparently, the difficulty curve of the game had increased exponentially. And, unfortunately for the clearers, that was not good.

It was among the reasons as to why there were roughly only a few hundred people in the clearer's guild at maximum.

Well, hopefully by the end of this week, they'd have a few more in the Fuurinkazan, but they'd have to wait and see.

The thick forest's air wasn't as light as the fields was. It was more humid, slightly heavier and felt a bit denser.

Thanks to his hearing sense, he swiftly turned around to spot a… Rabbit.

Yay.

Despite its lack of impressiveness and the anticlimax of the situation, it still zipped around the forest, pretending he wasn't there. From tree, to tree. Jumping up, and down and using its bouncy feet to support itself. The white coat of fur was thin yet firm.

Nobu noticed how it sprung from side to side, left to right as if it were trying to confuse him.

Honestly, it was kinda working, he was getting a bit dizzy and a bit of pain from turning his neck side to side quickly.

Oh well, he may as well hunt it. Not like he had any plans for dinner… Oh wait. Yes, he did. Ah, shit.

Shrugging, he equipped a steel kunai (Courtesy of his connections in the Fuurinkazan). And with the grace of a ballerina, brought his hand down in a single motion, like a tennis serve.

This rabbit was fast, no doubt about it. But Nobu was faster. As it emerged from behind its tree, it stopped a few yards away, before bouncing at him, from left to right, like a zigzag.

His first throw missed easily, judging by the clanging from the kunai. But Nobu squinted his eyes straight at the rabbit. Noticing the pattern, he once again drew a Kunai.

Throwing it firmly, not at the rabbit, but straight down the middle as the rabbit just jumped into the air. By the time it realised where the knife was going, it was too late.

As it flew straight into the path of the knife, the cold steel left a gaping cut. Exploding into polygons, he walked over and glanced down at the ingredient. Ugh. Only B-Class. Unfortunately, his [Animal Recognition] Skill wasn't high enough to full categorise this animal, but it did add the name [Gnashing Hare] to his database of animals.

Oh well, he could probably get a hundred Col for something like this. Or just keep it in storage and use it at a later date. Provided it didn't expire.

It disappeared into his inventory in a flash of polygons as he continued on his way, to the town behind the forest.

Walking onward, he spotted a sunray breaking apart the trees, prying its way on to the forest path. What a sight. Holding an arm up to block out the sun, he emerged into the town of Ronbaru.

Ah, Ronbaru. Unfortunately, this floor wasn't chock full of facilities or places to loot, so it was quickly cleared out, used as a camp for a few days before they moved on once again. Sandwiched in between floor 26, which housed the base of the K.O.B and the 28th floor renowned for its Blood Wolf hunting ground. It was like being the middle child of one really successful older sibling and a really attractive younger sibling.

But, Nobu found Ronbaru charming. Something about it, whether it was the dark elf theme or the homey vibe it gave off, something about Ronbaru was just attractive.

It was here where he would, uh… Pay off his tab to a friend.

Yeah. That'll do.

Pressing a hand against the wooden inn door, he walked inside before talking to the NPC at the desk.

"Hey, how much would it cost for a room here?" He asked, his hand scratching the back of his neck. He didn't wanna go back to the guild house just yet. He'd probably get a lot of questions and he wasn't ready for that. Perhaps he'd time his arrival on the night before they went to trials so they wouldn't have the time to pester him.

The NPC smiled back, albeit forcefully and said cheerfully, "It's 25 Col per night, sweetie. How many nights did you intend on staying?"

The white menu came up with a number-scroller. "Please choose the amount of nights you would like to spend here."

Pressing firmly on 1, he coughed up his tab and walked back outside for a good stroll before his friend got here.

Walking around, there were quite a few inhabitants here. Not a lot of soldiers or guards, but it was busy enough to be considered a large town. Most likely due to the lack of threat in this area, it would be a good place to settle down.

But now, Nobu had to think of a game plan. How to survive a date with Argo The Rat.

Truly, a courageous feat.

Anyway, he wandered around the city, looking for a suitable place to enter. Finally, he found a quiet restaurant. 'Taffy's'. Okay, simple and looks quite welcoming. A healthy glow came from the stained- glass windows as wooden panelling graced the sides, with a very 'homey' feeling. Rubbing his boots on the mat, even though that would have no effect, he opened as a chime rang throughout the building.

"Welcome, traveller! How many are we expecting tonight?" Greeted a polite waiter with a bow. Dressed in a black tuxedo and white shirt, he looked a bit out of place at somewhere as casual as this.

A simple hand gesture whilst muttering "Two, please." Was he all needed before Nobu sat down at a table close to the back. The oak seats creaked under his sudden intrusion of their space but he ignored the sounds and groans coming from the furniture.

Taking off his hood and cloak, he sat back into his chair. As a few minutes passed by, he quickly jolted up in his chair.

He forgot to message Argo the place.

For god's sake, alright. Flicking open to his messages, he noticed he actually didn't have any from Argo. She was probably busy with some deal. But he typed to her quickly, 'Meet me on the 27th floor. I'll come pick you up at the teleport gate, okay?'

Honestly, he wasn't expecting a reply, but he'd still wait there. So, he waited. In the cold of the night. Even if it was April. But that didn't matter.

That didn't matter to Nobu one bit.

* * *

"Agh! Which thingy do I wear? The red one or the yellow one?" With panic on her face, she rifled once again through her wardrobe. Nope, not that one, not that one, definitely not that one…

Perking her ears up again, she remembered. It's just Nobu. Not like it's a date. It's just a very, very casual dinner. Okay… Very casual.

Finally, she decided that her attire would be left up to fate.

With the poise and stance of a ballerina, she closed her eyes lifted her chin up to point towards to the sky and spun around twice.

With a sudden stop, she opened her eyes and glanced down at her messy, tattered green robe in front of her. Well, it wasn't exactly tattered, but it had definitely seen much better days.

But, such was fate that decreed it. And by the word of… whatever was up there, she was destined to wear… Her worst garment.

Oh well, it's Nobu. He'll forgive her.

He's not one to overcomplicate things. Wait… Never mind.

Despite its condition, it felt snug and trapped warmth in the back of her neck. She hadn't realised how cold it had been back there. With her robe of choice, she looked battered, worn out and like she had run 400 miles nonstop.

She liked it. Even if it didn't look the most appropriate for a dinner, it was the most appropriate for Argo. To hell, or the SAO equivalent with conduct. She was going to enjoy the completely and utterly free dinner provided by Nobusaki. Hmm… What was his first name? She highly doubted Nobusaki was his real name.

Nah, she'll ask him later.

Okay, so that's her clothes sorted. Now, where exactly is this dinner of theirs?

Swiping down, she didn't see any messages. Oh. Maybe he forgot? Oh, for fucks sake Nobu. You're not exactly one to be forgetful, but if you forgot her dinner… Well, she'd break him the way she broke her opponents.

With the ferocity of a tiger and the aggression of a rhino. When something is kept from Argo, she will tear down any wall, leap over any fence and slay any being to get what she deserves. Nobu better watch his back, because Argo will get her dinner through brute force if he doesn't reply in the next 10 minutes.

Well, she waited for 10 minutes.

And… Nothing. Sighing dramatically, she packed a knife and some throwing pins. Even if he was sleeping, she would find out where he lived and demanded her payment. Your time is up Nobu. It was nice knowing you, but if he didn't honour his debts, she wouldn't honour his privacy.

There was no corner of Aincrad she couldn't slip into, no fortress solid enough to keep her out.

You're going down… Oh wait, no. She just got a message from him. Never mind.

 _You got lucky this time, Nobu…_ Pausing a while, she read over the short message. Alright. Floor 27.

Hmm… Floor 27. Nothing too interesting there. Except for maybe… Ronbaru? Yeah. That was the only town she could think of as of right now. So, Ronbaru. Okay, but where?

Doesn't matter, she'll find out anyway. Usually she has all the information in SAO, but it was nice for a change to be surprised.

Springing in her step, she skips along the path, a bit more brightly than usual. If a person who recognised her were to see her like this in the street, they would most likely be extremely confused. Most likely they'd point and laugh at Argo's antics, realise who it was, and laugh harder.

Such was human nature.

Thankfully, however, she didn't come across anyone who she recognised and those who did see her merely waved her off as an excitable girl roaming the streets.

But as she warped into the familiar town, she looks around for her debtor. Seriously, though, where was he? Being late was Kii-bou's thing, after all.

Suddenly, something bumped into her. Something small and powerful… Like…

Oh. Nobu. Of course.

Unfortunately, she wasn't quick enough this time and ended up falling on the ground, face first.

"Ow..." A moan was all she responded with as Nobu stared down at her, wearing a small smile.

"I suppose, if we're paying off debts today, there you go. Now we're even." Seriously? He said all that with a straight face, hands in pockets and everything? Cold. Colder than the snow she pushed him into.

Glancing back up, she noticed, well he wasn't exactly dressed for the occasion. Oh, thank god.

So she wasn't out of place. Hopefully the place he had chosen wasn't exactly that fancy either, but she supposed that if it was, at least she'd get a good meal. Even if she would stick out like a sore thumb.

Dusting herself off, she stood up against Nobu and swatted his arm forcefully. "You're a butt, you know that?" Now this was the Argo that Nobu knew. Immature, childish and kinda all-round adorable.

She crossed her arms and looked up with a pout, like a 6-year-old being told she couldn't get ice-cream.

Honestly, that look did suit her quite well. What with the cat whiskers and ears. Nobu wondered whether or not those cat ears were an item of clothing or some sort of in-game trait. After all, it's not like anyone would actually have cat ears in real life.

Then again, it was Argo. Either seemed plausible now that Nobu thought about it. She was pretty random when she was in casual mode.

It was funny how Argo could phase in and out of moods with the blink of an eye. From a businesswoman with the world in her palm to a 6-year-old in a matter of seconds. She changed so frequently and so expertly Nobu often wondered who was the real Argo?

Logically, it would seem that the childish personality was Argo's true persona, but maybe even that was just a front to make her seem defenceless and weak. She was so good at acting, even Nobu didn't know.

Act like a queen, and people will hand you the throne. Good old Argo knew this better than anyone.

The sky was at this point, terribly dark. Nobu was anxious to get to bed. After all, rooms did expire. So, he waved her over to the gateway of the street and began to move along the deserted pathway.

Silence greeted them as he glanced at his in-game clock. Hmm… Wait, it's nearly midnight?

Sure enough, the numbers definitely read 11:56. And it sure wasn't AM considering the lack of sunlight.

"So, Nobby? Where're you taking me? Not like there's much places open at this time, if any. Ooh! Are you cooking for me? How high is your cooking skill? It better be pretty high, or else I'm not accepting anything you make!" Fussy as always, that Argo was.

Good on you, Nobusaki, for getting into this mess.

Alright, looks like he was cooking. Not like his cooking skill was low. Actually, because no one in the guild wanted to eat takeout or at restaurants every day, Klein demanded that everyone have at least a 'basic' foundation for cooking.

And of course, that meant grinding until it was 50% full. Well, everyone except Klein. Typical manipulative guild leader. That also meant he had an excuse to never, ever make dinner. Typical manipulative and extremely cunning guild leader.

Glancing down at his skills, well it was 664/1000.

"How's 66%? That good enough for you?" Nobu asks curiously.

Argo ponders it for a moment. With a hand rubbing her chin, she taps her foot for a good few seconds. The light really made her face stand out, and those whiskers contrasted nicely against her skin tone, Nobu thought.

Wait… Woah, back off Nobu. Take a step back. That's dangerous territory you're walking into. More dangerous than any boss room on Aincrad. Alright.

Now that he had successfully reined in his thoughts, he set sights on his guild house and raised a crystal before he suddenly stopped himself.

 _Nope. Can't return just yet. Hmm… Oh. Well, I suppose I don't really have any other option. Actually, I could treat her to breakfast or something? I mean, I don't really wanna ask her back to there. After all, that'd be kinda awkward and make me seem shallow…_

"Hey Argo… So, uh… Can I cook back at your place?"

The question smashed into Argo like a train. Boom. Her mind was officially blown. Seriously? He had resorted, to _that_. If he wanted to get in her pants, for god's sake!

Oop. Yeah, he was afraid this was going to happen.

"Or, or if you like, I can treat you to breakfast or lunch tomorrow morning? I'll get out as soon as I'm done. Hehe…" A nervous chuckle simply slipped out as he nervously scratched the back of his head. Honestly, who could blame him? He had tripped his way straight into the world's most dangerous minefield. Yay.

For god's sake, Nobusaki watch your words next time. It was at that moment he realised that Argo had gone deadly silent. Like, silent as in a viper silent, not an awkward silence.

The tension you feel when you're walking down an alleyway, as opposed to walking alongside an ex-girlfriend. Trust me, he's done that before. And boy, was it laying it on thick. If Nobu drew [Dark Harbinger] right now, he could probably slice the tension into bits like butter. Except much less delicious.

At that moment, he decided to bravely turned around to face his colleague. And, to his somewhat curiosity, he only saw the stoneless business expression she reserved for her clients. Wow. He really had messed up, huh?

Finally, she let out a sigh.

And so did Nobu, but much less exasperation and much more relief. Least he hadn't been chopped into little bits with [Dark Harbinger]. Something greater than relief jumped off his shoulders.

It was gratitude. Gratitude to Argo for understanding how he had gotten himself into this shit-fest. Truly, a greater feeling of gratitude had yet to be felt by the human race.

But Nobu still kept up his somewhat awkward dialect with staccato and quick speeches with addons and sentences tacked on at the end to justify his words.

The two slowly walked towards the gate before Argo grabbed Nobu's hand. Without another word, she quietly whispered "Teleport Home." Before they vanished into the air.

Seriously… Nobu. Get your head in the freakin' game.

 **A/N: Bit of a shorter chapter here, mainly used as filler because I didn't want to have the dinner too early in the story.**

 **Also, one thing I will note is the whole arc with Kirito joining the Black Cats and Sachi dying with him going off for the rare item, that's going to be placed after the whole Black Swordsman Arc. You'll see what I mean, but I've done this so that I can adjust it to my timeline and plan. How do I plan to justify it?**

 **Uh… AU? I dunno.**

 **Anyway, thanks for understanding and feel free to R &R.**

 **Cheers,**

 **SecondComing02.**


	5. Chapter 5: Progression

**Sword Art Online: The Ghost**

 _Chapter 5: Progression_

Nobu really needed to learn how to use a kitchen knife.

Like, even though it was just a game, and all you had to do was tap the ingredients, select the option and then pray your skill was high enough, if… No, when he returned to the real world, he needed to learn how to use a kitchen knife.

Honestly, he wished it were as simple as that in real life. Then again, the grinding involved with levelling up your cooking stat would be painful. Plus, then there'd be no point in going out for dinner to a restaurant.

Unemployment and business would be… Actually, he's probably thinking too deep into this. But to be fair, that was a frequent habit of his.

Stopping himself, he managed to push the black pot into the oven. Setting the timer… And voila! Now we wait. And have awkward conversations as to why we're at a girl's house as opposed to a suitable restaurant making her breakfast instead of dinner, and yeah.

He was not making it out of this one alive.

Boss raids and monsters 10 levels higher than him? He'd take that over dating a girl any day of the week. Especially when girl in question is Argo The Rat.

Speaking of boss raids, the clearer's tryouts was in about… Oh. It was tomorrow. Hooray. Yeah, after this he'd need to return to the guild ASAP. Sure enough, there were about 20 messages from Klein alone asking where the hell he was and when he'd be back. Which was funny, because he said he'd be back today, and he was a guildmate and friend of Klein, so he could easily track him on the [map].

Also, because he was still in his friends list, Klein would be able to tell he was alive, so no real reason to be worried. Then again, the trial was tomorrow and they did have to be organised.

Oh well.

 _Ding!_ Ah, there goes the pot. With Argo's pink oven mitts, a staple and daring statement of masculinity, he pulls out the stew. Made from B-Class [Gnashing Hare Meat], he was proud of the stew. Yeah. Smelled decent. All he had to do was wake up Sleeping Beauty.

Slowly walking up the wooden stairs that moaned under every step, he slid his hand up the banister before searching around for the master bedroom.

Listening closely to see if she was awake, a snore was all he got in response. Sleepyhead.

3 swift knocks on the door where the snoring was resulted in a girl yawning loudly and groggily muttering, "Wha? Who's there?"

"It's me, Nobu. Breakfast is ready."

No response. Seriously? Opening up the door, it revealed a… Oh, she fell asleep again. Smooth, Argo. Smooth.

Glancing around, it was quite a nice bedroom. A fancy lamp on the bedside table, green sheets matching her green robe on the floor. Mahogany desk with 6 drawers, a closet and a window. More of a porthole, like the ones you find on the side of a ship. Round and actually didn't let in much light.

But it did look nice, and complimented the minimalist look of the room.

Well, the minimalist look of the room except for the wall above her bed. Now that was a busy wall.

Taped on was a massive pin board filled with scribbly notes and writing. Nobu assumed that was his handwriting, but if it was, it was terribly illegible. The language simply didn't look readable. Nope. It's not like Japanese is particularly difficult to read either. Also, weren't girls supposed to have neat handwriting? Or at least, the ones that Nobu knew did. Her mother, his sister and all the girls at school had handwriting that you could frame and mount in an art gallery.

His dad and older brother on the other hand, didn't. Nobu's handwriting was much better than theirs. And when Nobu's handwriting is better than yours, that's kinda sad.

But taking a step back to drink in the sheer volume of the wall, he also noticed strings attached to each pin. Like one of those maps used in TV shows or movies to show how everything connects.

Honestly, it looked like a red spider web filled with notes of messy handwriting. But, to be fair, it was pretty makeshift.

Wait a minute, no. It wasn't one large spider web. It was multiple. Everything at first glance looked interconnected, but there were definite dead ends and loose threads. Literally. Everything ranged from the [Laughing Coffin] guild to the picture in the centre of Akihiko Kayaba.

But noticing something in the top corner, he spied a picture of Kirito, affectionately named 'Kii-bou'. And tied to that, was Klein, Asuna, Liz, Silica and… _Hey! That's me!_ Thought Nobu.

Wait, no. Klein, Asuna, Liz, Silica and he weren't tied to Kirito, they were tied to Nobu? But why?

If anything, Nobu had met all these people through Kirito. Except for Klein, but he had met them at the same time anyway.

Oh well, she probably had her reasons. Shaking it off, he sits down softly on the mattress in an attempt as to not wake her up. The rustling of the sheets didn't seem to bother her. A trail of drool on the side of her mouth moved up and down with her breathing.

Even though the spit did look disgusting, it did feel like something Argo would do. Messy, childish and kinda adorable. Tick, tick and tick.

Wait, what was he doing again? Oh, that's right. Waking her up. Did he really want to though? She did look cute when she was… I mean, nothing.

Nope. Argo was not his girlfriend. Not at all. Honestly, Nobu couldn't even conceive being with someone like this. She was a true demon. Yep. 100% trickster.

Mhm. Nope, not gonna go anywhere near her. Except as friends. Yeah, that's it. Just friends.

He imagined a warning sign around her, saying 'Please do not feed the animal.' Whilst she was thrashing around in a collar. That was a weird vision.

But at the same time, she was strong and independent. Efficient, decisive. Nobu admired that in her. But just because you admire someone doesn't mean you like them, right? Right?

He'd leave that to another time. Way too messy. But if Argo felt that way… Nah. She wouldn't. If she did, she'd most likely have taken him hostage. She wasn't afraid to take what she wanted.

Suddenly, as if to remind him, his brain had a flashback. Boom. Like that. It was when he was in the alleyway. And Nobu turned around to see Argo. Not standing tall, but slouched over with her hands on her chest. Worried. She looked so vulnerable. Wow. Some people could go from 0 to 100 really quick.

But then again, he did pass out.

Seeing her like that, Nobu thought it was just because she was cold. And honestly, he still believed that. After all, Argo never really worried about him. Why would she? Why should she?

"Nobbles? What are you doing next to my bed?" She demanded, a childish glare on her face.

"Whaa-? Oh! Argo! Whoops! Hehe, yeah sorry to wake you." Standing up immediately, he backed away slowly, hands in the air. That face looked as if she was about to bite him. Which was also a totally Argo thing to do.

But suddenly, her anger evaporated and morphed in curiosity. That striped nose of hers went up and scoured the air like a wolf, hunting for its prey. Which wasn't actually that far off the truth. The scent of boiling meat and a tinge of acidity snuck into her nose without her realising it. And, subconsciously her body commanded her to get out of bed. Which she did. Revealing her light frame and underwear.

Red, silk bra. Red, silk panties. Wow. For a… Wait. These are Argo's panties that he's staring at. **Argo** 's panties. **Argo The Rat**.

Silence.

Argo seemingly had the same thought before stopping halfway across her room, turning around emotionlessly and diving back into bed. No, not diving. Pouncing. Like a leopard. One second, she was standing half-naked in the middle of the room and the next she was underneath her covers. Nobu couldn't see what her face looked like under the sheets, but he imagined it to be, well… The same colour as her underwear. Now all she needed to do was dye her skin and hair red to have the whole set.

But as Nobu managed to emerge from the shock of what happened, she whispered, barely audible from under the covers, "Get out, please."

Nobu obliged.

As the door shut, Argo was dying inside. Did she seriously just show her underwear to Nobu-freakin'-saki? Yeah, girl, you're definitely not good in the mornings. But that smell managed to reach her nose again and she forgot all of her worries. Putting on clothes this time, she stepped outside to the smell. Not in a hypnotised way, but more curiously. Seriously, what was that smell?

She didn't make it, so it had to be Nobu. But why would Nobsy make her breakf… Oh. Nevermind.

Wordlessly, she stepped down the staircase and sat down opposite Nobu. Nobu acted like none of that had just happened, but he had mentally screenshotted that moment, whether he wanted to or not. Argo also acted like it hadn't happened, but the tinge of her face indicated that it wasn't a hallucination or anything.

As she passed Nobu on the way to the kitchen, she stopped next to him, still facing behind him and whispering, "Don't you dare mention that to anyone." Nobu merely sat there, still as a statue as she continued on.

But when she emerged, she was, unfortunately her normal self. And Nobu wasn't sure whether he liked normal Argo or embarrassed Argo more.

"Nob-Nob! Did you make this stew, for little ol' me?" She asked in a very passive-aggressive tone. Though the aggression was more likely from the fact that Nobu had botched his dinner rather than the incident.

Nobu turned around, also appearing to have returned to his normal self and shrugged. "I mean, it's the least I can do, right?" Inside however, he would never see Argo in the same way.

Eh, he'd deal with his PTSD later.

Standing up and pushing his chair in politely, he stretched quite loudly and fiddled around with his Tanto. Unfortunately, he was going back to his guild today. He had enjoyed being by himself for a while. That way he could push all that crap to the back of his mind. But like everything else, it would catch back up to him today.

With a tinge of apologising in his voice, he glanced at Argo and muttered politely, "Uh, hey. So, I've got to get back to my guild today. You know, with tryouts for the clearers tomorrow."

Argo merely shrugged in response. Honestly, she was expecting this. Klein had talked nonstop about joining the front lines and 'putting their lives on the line for those who couldn't' or whatever noble sentiment he was rambling on about.

Walking behind him, she forcefully grabbed his hand and dragged him to the doorway.

"Wha-hey! What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm walking you back, come on. It's early but we need to head out if we wanna get to your guild house before noon."

Now it was Nobu's turn to flush red. That was a quick turn of events. Doesn't matter, he'll wave it off later. With a sudden spring in her step that Nobu had yet to adjust to, they breezed past the markets and headed off towards the teleportation gate.

A solid half an hour of walking later, they arrived, puffing and panting like dogs. Today was quite hot, with the sun firmly placed in the middle of the sky. But lack of clouds meant that the heat wouldn't be trapped on the surface. Well, if Kayaba had implemented that kinda thing. Also, the sky just looked better without clouds. Plus, there was the fact that technically, the sky was actually just a ceiling, but never mind that.

"Oi! Nobster! Hurry up! You'll miss the trials if you stand around all day. Come on, I have to apply!"

Oh. That's why she's so twitchy. She's also taking part.

Wait.

Argo's trying out?

Argo The Rat, is trying out?

At that point, Nobu simply just stared at her. Then he exploded into laughter.

With both shaking uncontrollably, one from amusement and the other from annoyance, eventually Argo simply walked up and slapped Nobu on the cheek.

"Shut up, Nobster! It's bad enough as it is everyone'll recognise me… I don't need you on my case as well…" Rubbing her arms awkwardly, she backed off and looked down at the floor, a tinge of insecurity on her face.

Her small, hunched over figure was a clear give away to how anxious and nervous she was. And to be fair, why wouldn't she be? This was like taking an entrance exam to the best school in the state. If she messed up, it would be a while before she could try again. And that's assuming there was another opportunity.

So, maybe Nobu was being a bit of a dick. But he just couldn't imagine Argo, who had always been content to stay on the sidelines and send others in to do her dirty work, now she's going to put her life on the line? Sorry, but if someone said that to him a week ago, he would've… Well, he would've had exactly the same reaction as the one before.

Regaining his composure, he took a deep breath in and stood up straight. This was no time for jokes or fooling around. Come on, get your head in the game, Jason.

But glancing over at his companion, she was still looking down sadly at the floor. She hadn't her hood on so it was easy to make out her features. And they displayed… Insecurity. The high and mighty Argo was as frail and as small as a child. Well, she was a child, but that's not the point. The point was that this was a side he had never seen before. Except for that time in the alleyway. But that was probably an anomaly.

Wait. Was this the true Argo? Once you peeled off the sassy and sarcastic teenager and broke down the walls of the incredible tenacious businesswoman, was this who she truly was? A small and weak girl?

Nah, Nobu had too much faith in Argo for his impressions to go down the drain like that. But then again, he was in a similar situation. If you stripped Nobu of his sword and attitude, he'd be someone who simply turned and fled at problems.

Never facing them head on. Never go up against something you can't win against. Simple. If there is a chance, sure. Go for it. But against unsurmountable odds, yeah. No. Out of the question.

That was his philosophy. And, like all other people with philosophies, he quickly found himself breaking it.

He remembered back in school, he used to always put things off until the last minute. Well, to be fair, who hasn't? English essay on Romeo & Juliet? Bang it out in 20 minutes if he's stressed enough.

Actually, Nobu couldn't remember the last time he had actually studied or prepared at length for an event. Maybe his tennis playing, but that was different. He never really played tennis to train for a championship or a specific match. Don't matter.

And yet, here he was. Tanto strapped to his back, shield fitted nicely underneath his robe and raring to take a crack at some high levelled "elite" players. Come on, blood was pumping in his ears. His fingers were twitching, toes were tipping and springing up and down.

He will draw blood. Whether it was his own or the other person's. As samurai, according to legend, never sheathed their swords until they tasted red blood, Nobu shall not rest until he sees his name amongst those who fight on the front lines.

With a new-found gleam in his eyes and a mirth in his breast, he strode forward. Not the stride of a teenager, the stride of a warrior. Every step made Argo take a hitched breath. This was the Nobusaki she admired. Not the saggy boy who sucks up all of her teasing. The man who places his blade in the way of danger in the hope of stopping it head on.

Forcefully pushing the blood down from her cheeks, she followed in his footsteps and seemingly absorbed some of his confidence.

A tinge of seriousness crept into Nobu's voice as he yelled out, "Teleport, Guild House!"

The blue crystals faded along with their avatars.

As their vision returned, the sound of metal clinking attracted their attention. What was that? Swipe, hack. Slash. Hmm… Sounds a lot like – "Hyah!" Yeah. That's Klein. Walking up the front door, their boots stomping loudly against the dirt pathway, crunching it like potato chips. Apparently, not loud enough though as the guild continued to hone their already pristine technique.

With every swing of the arm, a dummy fell to the floor only to respawn a second later. Plus, having the added bonus of not degrading your weapon, dummies were the ultimate way of testing a weapon.

Rumour has it that top level guilds found a blueprint for a moving dummy range. So, instead of having basic static dummies, they have spinning, rotating and even dodging dummies.

Hopefully, when Fuurinkazan made a name for itself, they'd be able to share in that kind of resource. That would be invaluable to developing their progress. However, such advanced technology was kept to the clearers, in the fear of red guilds such as the newly established "Laughing Coffin" guild being able to get their hands on it.

But Nobu expertly guided Argo through the winding halls of the guild house. Wide and grand, they were able to accommodate the largest of objects. Such as Dale.

Sliding open the door of the samurai house, he opened to see the gang at their usual spots. Kunimittz was swinging wildly at his own dummy, taking up majority of the backyard thanks to the nature of his chain-sickle. The guys tended to steer clear of his attack radius, and with good reason.

Klein and Dale, working on sword techniques as per the norm.

Dale, trying to rub his already shining cleaver.

Harry One, attempting to readjust his bulky armour. Nobu never understood why they gave such slow armour to a support troop.

And Issin performing pushups in the middle of the courtyard. That was a sight to behold. But honestly, he did miss this view. The guys just hanging out together, improving and training.

Of course, being Argo, she very explicitly decreed her presence. "Alrighty, boys! Lookin' good with that chain sickle! Use your hips a bit more on the swing though." Pointing sharply at Klein, he yells quite loudly, "Oi! Reddy! Come on, move!"

The rest of the guys lookup, stunned to see a blonde 14-year-old ordering them around and barking at them. But then they see her companion, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck and the glance at one another. The way guys tend to do when another guy brings back a pretty girl.

Waving enthusiastically at Nobu, as if he had just returned from a shopping trip, he stepped over to where Argo was yelling at Klein to improve his stance and Klein was simply putting his hands up like a surrender and slowly backing away from the crazy lady.

Can't blame him, he's only human. Not like many people could take Argo screaming in their face anyway. Why can't she be like Liz or Asuna? Controlled and disciplined. But then again, she was when making business, so he supposed this was her way of striking a balance.

Shrugging as the guys patted him on the back, he did blush and crouch smaller as they whispered about 'the blondie' and the 'crazy girl' talking (read: yelling) to Klein.

"So, how long until tryouts?" Asks Nobu to Dale as he yawns quite loudly. He had probably just woken up, knowing Dale. Plus, the size of his gut didn't really help.

Shrugging, he stares at the cloudless sky and says, "Tomorrow. Technically it's uh… 23 hours, because they start at 10 am. But hey, you've come back just in time. And with a girl nonetheless! I always thought we were gonna be an all-male guild, but good to see you're expanding our demographic!" With a congratulatory slap, Nobu rebukes, "Oi, she's not here to join us! She's only here to talk to Klein. And because she's also signing up."

"Eh, another solo player? Well, I suppose Kirito turned out alright. So maybe they'll give her a chance. But, it ain't often that a solo player gets in. Heck, Kirito only got in because he was a Beta tester."

"True…" Thing was, none of them actually recognised Argo. Sure, Klein had told them about her, and rumours had circulated around the town about this ferocious teen. But no one would believe him when he said that was the Argo the Rat. After all, the stories about her make her seem like a living goddess or a divine warrior, capable of crushing those in her path. These guys had no clue as to who she was.

"Her name's Argo, right?"

Well, that thought went out the window.

Argo perked her cat ears up at her name and turned around to Dale. Waving slowly, she smiled and turned back to her oh-so-energetic conversation with Klein.

"Yeah. That's her alright. Recognise the ears and the whiskers. Kinda a dead giveaway. Well, now that I know who she is, yeah. She'll probably get in through sheer influence alone."

Nobu could agree with that. If there were to be a queen or a princess of Aincrad, it would be her or Asuna. Actually, Asuna would be the queen and Argo would be her advisor, most likely. Seeing as they were practically best friends as the two most renowned girls of SAO, that seemed appropriate.

Stepping down into the backyard, Nobu asked Issin to see what he could do about the condition of his Tanto, ("I'll try, but it'll take a few hours," "Yeah, that's fine.") and strode over to Klein in an attempt to calm the pair down. Or Argo. Mostly Argo.

"You know, you guys have shown me a lot about Katana skills! Then again, that's probably the one area I don't know, I even know things like the martial arts skill! Nobu knows that as well, considering I told him how to get it, right, Nobu?"

"Yeah… Yeah, you did. That was painful, breaking that rock with just my fists."

"But you did it in a single day! That was incredible! Even Kii-bou took about 3 times that to do it! Well, not like he uses it anyway."

Modestly shrugging, it wasn't actually that hard. Whilst the few that had actually attempted to break the rock always ended up karate chopping it or smashing it to bits, Nobu simply watered it down to make the rock soft and moist.

When was that, a few months ago? Yeah. Argo was walking along, whilst Nobu aired out some complaints about not having enough unique or interesting skills to compete with the others in his guild when Argo had suggested that he complete a random quest.

With nothing else to do, he agreed and followed her along to a small hut within the depths of the 2nd floor. Why this was here, he had no clue.

Walking inside the small but modest hut, it was clearly Japanese. The thatching and the walls all indicated it was a traditional home for perhaps a samurai or a daimyo. But in the backyard, was a ring of water amongst trees and bushes. In the middle of the ring was a clearing. The dirt floor housed a rock imbedded neatly in the centre. There was nothing for a good 3 metres around the rock and it looked a bit out of place, as if a mountain had suddenly decided to move right into the middle of a desert.

He remembered a sentence that an old man had mysteriously told him, "A good martial artist uses the environment first and his body second." So, Nobu used that advice and noticed how the rock was encompassed by a lake. Grabbing some water using his hands, he gently trickled it through his palms to ensure that it would get wet enough to become soft, but not too moist to the point where it became muddy and would get his hands stuck.

After he felt the right balance was struck, he sat there. Wondering what other advantages he could use. He was feeling quite proud after thinking of that little tid bit. An hour passed. Then two. Then three. At that point, he felt like he had genuinely exhausted all other options. Environment first, body second.

Well, he had already used the environment. So, let's give it a crack.

He stood up, eyed the rock and stepped forward. Bringing one arm up, he swung downwards as hard as he could, but stopped before he actually hit the rock. His hand was trembling from all the effort he had just used. Without touching it, he withdrew it slowly and tried again. But, none of those swings felt right. Like a golfer, who keeps adjusting his stance or swing or taking more and more practise swings until he feels like he has the golden one.

Nobu felt exactly like that. Trying to find the golden swing. But it just didn't arrive. Argo had gone off to god knows where, and Kirito, who was apparently the only other one that had completed this quest, to Argo's knowledge, was probably busy fighting some ridiculously high-levelled monster. So, in the silence of the forest and amongst the bushes, he kept swinging.

Another hour. The sun at this point had begun to set and he was still not even close to what he wanted.

"Your muscle is too tense."

The man had reappeared. Wow. How does he do that? One minute he's there, the next he's vanished. Poof. Like a flashbang. With less blinding and much less noise. Looking up, a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his forehead.

"My muscles? They're one-hundred percent relaxed. Look." He had another attempt. No success.

"I didn't mean your arm muscles."

What? Glancing back down at the rock, he simply stared at it for a second. What does that even mean? What other muscles are there?

"What do you mean, sensei?"

No response. Chuckling softly, he spat onto the ground. What was he expecting, a YouTube DIY tutorial? Nah, he'd have to do this himself.

But taking that advice into mind, he filed that away for later.

"Too tense, huh? Wonder what that means."

As the sun had begun to merge with the horizon, he sat down on the ground. At this point, he had completely disrobed and taken off all of his armour except for a few undergarments. The cool breeze did nothing to relieve his body of the immense heat and stress it was undergoing.

For a moment, he simply sat there and zoned out. His mind went blank. It felt a bit like a dream. Like you're aware of what you're doing, but your body doesn't tell you in advance, so you can't tell it to do something else. A bit like playing a sport. Your body responds faster than your mind. So instead, you give up control to the body.

A brain by itself can't score goals or shoot hoops. The body can.

If a tennis ball bounces in front of you, your arm suddenly raises itself and smashes the racquet surface against it. There's no thinking involved. Pure, 100% instinct.

And, just like that, Nobu found himself raising his arm once again. This time, he didn't hesitate or stop. He just kept going. Like a dancer performing a solo. You don't train your mind to learn a dance, you train the body.

Right on cue, it stopped once again. This time, he actually permitted himself to touch the rock. The first time he actually felt it was a good 5 or 6 hours after he first saw it. Talk about discipline. It felt, soft. And malleable. Probably all the water he added. But that time felt different. All the other times his mind was calculating the outcomes, before stopping short at the end.

Like pressing [Exit] right before finishing a solo on Guitar Hero. Why? Because you weren't gonna get a perfect rating/score? Yeah, that was exactly it. Nobu had to do it in one go. That old man had somehow made it clear that you did it in one go, or you didn't get it at all. Harsh, but that's the way it was.

So, taking in a deep breath, he completely relinquished control of his body to the muscles. Muscle memory dictated that he stood up, closed his eyes, assumed a stance and raise his arms. At that point, he wasn't thinking. His mind was simply blank. If even a little thought would be able to creep in, it would be doubt. Because doubt is the number one killer of dreams. Have no doubt, and you will be satisfied no matter the outcome.

None of his senses were working. He couldn't see, hear or smell anything. He couldn't feel anything, despite the breeze that had decided to show up. He definitely couldn't taste anything, for obvious reasons.

Trust in yourself, just as you would another person.

With a final breath, he brought the hand down.

The sound of the rock breaking was the most satisfying thing he had ever heard.

Dare he open his eyes? His ears tell him that he's done it. But suddenly he gave control back to his mind. And boy, was his mind busy. Boom, he was hit with a thousand scenarios of what could've happened. Maybe the rock was broken, maybe that was actually his hand instead of the rock. Maybe he stepped on something.

Maybe the sensei did it and he'd be kicked out for taking too long.

Such was the magnitude and sheer power of doubt. He was 100% focused and 100% confident until doubt came into his mind. Hitting him harder than any rock ever would.

Fluttering his eyes open, he stood up and didn't look down. Nope, not yet.

"You have done well, my boy."

Control yourself, come on. Slowly, but surely, he careened his neck down and felt his heart leap around in his ribcage as he observed the shattered mess sprawled all over the floor.

He hadn't broken the rock. He had fucking demolished it.

The man walked over, affectionately put his hand on Nobu's shoulder and simply whispered, "Carry on my teachings, young one…" And faded away like a cloud of smoke.

That was it. No trace was left. No footprints, no nothing.

Slowly standing up, Nobu felt calm. Serene. At peace. He was aware and yet also ignorant of everything. The state of his consciousness was in flux, warping in and out and experiencing moments of sensory overload before dipping straight down so that he couldn't even feel his own body. Like a rollercoaster of sensitivity.

Finally, his mind settled on a higher setting before. It was as if he had put on some contact lenses that had a HD setting. The clouds in the sky seemed crisper. Trees and bushes seemed more lush and vibrant. He could see every ripple of the water.

'Congratulations, you have unlocked the skills: [Martial Arts] and [Meditation].'

Pressing the [Dismiss] button, he turned around before realising where he was. How did he get back to civilisation again? Oh, right. He didn't need to. "Teleport, Fuurinkazan Guild House."

"Anyway, Klein. Oh dear, look at the time! I have a business transaction to sigh off in about 30 minutes. I'll leave Nobsy over to here to you." With a firm pat on the back, Nobu shook his head from side to side and yanked himself out of that flashback. Woah. How long was he tripping out like that?

Apparently not long, because no one had noticed.

"See ya around, Argo!" He yelled before rounding on Nobu with hands on hips. "Now, how was your little 'vacation', huh? Going AWOL like that…" Before ruffling his hair in a condescending manner, considering he was the youngest of the group. Yeah, cheers Klein. Asshat.

Flicking his hair to the side, he managed to straighten and dust himself off with his hands before sitting himself down on a nearby bench. Today had been a long day. And it wasn't even over. By now it was past lunchtime, but the Fuurinkazan rarely stopped for that anyway.

"Yo, Klein. Have you guys got anything to eat?"

 **A/N: Rate and Review. Clearing Guild tryouts next chapter.**

 **Cheers,**

 **SecondComing02**


	6. Chapter 6: Assimilation

**Sword Art Online: The Ghost**

 _Chapter 6: Assimilation_

"Welp. We're finally here! After what must have been like, several months! We're finally here!" Klein anxiously chuckled towards his equally nervous 6 guild mates. The 7 had found a place within the lobby of the K.O.B headquarters to simply sit down and dread… Uh, I mean wait anxiously for the upcoming event.

This was the main course of the last few months. Make it or break it. Go big, or go home. All this merely made Nobu grip his [Tanto] tighter.

"Well, whilst we're here, we may as well admire their guild house. I mean, just check out the sheer size of it!"

Dale did have a point there. The way that trials worked was you simply showed up to the front lines on a designated day alongside all the other rookies and wannabes and simply walked through the current floor. Being at floor 59, all of the gang were levelled at around a respectable 90-ish. Sure, Kirito was at level 100-god-knows-what, but he was the definition of a try-hard.

Like the guy wouldn't even eat or sleep if it meant he could kill one more enemy. We really needed to teach Kirito how to chill out. Hopefully he wasn't like this in real life, otherwise… Well, he would most likely work himself to death.

There are worse ways to go, though. Like Heraclitus. He drowned in a boiling vat of cow poo, but that's not relevant. Learned it in Greek history, blah, blah, blah. Philosophy and Zeus and democracy and all that bullshit.

Now, where's that The-More-You-Know animation?

In all seriousness, they were reasonably prepared to tackle the front lines. Most monsters at around this height only capped off at around level 80-83. So Nobu was reasonably confident that they would get through this.

The unfortunate part was that monster levelling and player levelling is not scaled to the same. That is to say, theoretically a level-3 player could still be killed by a level-1 boar. Even if your number is higher, it's actually your stat points that matter. A higher level only means you have more skill points to distribute. That's it.

Nothing more, nothing less. So, in hindsight, maybe they were in a bit of a pickle. Depending on how far the level gap actually stretched, but you never know. Kayaba was one slippery fellow.

Honestly, whenever someone even mentioned his name, Nobu had an instinct to turn around and draw his weapon. It just sent a chill down his spine. He was probably watching somewhere, in his little office of his. Most likely he was sitting down, having his coffee and monitoring his creation. The governments and authorities wouldn't be able to arrest him because of the remaining 8000 or so players.

Talk about a hostage situation.

He probably did keep an 'off' switch somewhere in his room. But that'd mean certain death for Nobu and Klein and the [Fuurinkazan] and Kirito and Asuna and Liz and Silica and Agil and Argo and… Well, you get the idea.

Anyway, Kayaba was keeping them hostage. 'Nuff said.

Pushing that to the back of his mind, Nobu gripped his Tanto, [The Gakushuu] tightly. His knuckles had already gone white, but he was beyond that point. He couldn't feel them.

"Alright, newbies! You're all coming with me!" That sounds familiar. Hey, it's Asuna!

Yeah, there was no mistaking that chestnut hair and authoritative voice. That's the Knights of the Blood Oath's second-in-command for you. Flanked by 2 heavily armed guards with sinister helmets, Asuna drew the attention of every warrior in the room.

Today's competition consisted of about 7 different guilds. That was slightly less than expected, but the total volume of players was higher than anticipated. Normally you'd have the smaller, elite guilds trying out. But today, there were 2 large guilds hoping to get some front-line action.

Nobu didn't know them well, but apparently they were called [The Phantom Spears] and [Blazing Warlords] respectively. Nobu would've picked out a cooler name than the [Blazing Warlords], but you do you, he supposed.

Anyway, [Fuurinkazan] mobilised itself a lot faster than some of the other guilds thanks to the small number. Majority of [The Phantom Spears] were still lining up by the time that [Fuurinkazan] had finished applying its buffs and potions to its members.

Looking up at his health bar, he noticed a red hexagon with a black bicep indicating a strength boost, 3 lines that looked like a wind gust for a speed boost, a blue triangle and a black shield for defence increase and a green circle with a black heart for a health boost.

Dunno why it wasn't a red heart, but who really cares?

Asuna waved them over and turned on her heel, with the poise of a ballerina dancer. Stepping outside, quickly followed by her guards and then the guilds, they walked into what was apparently the 59th floor.

Nobu's first impression was, well this is kinda unimpressive.

Floor 59 had a sort of 'Medieval Pasture' vibe. A bit like the Scottish Highlands. Green pastures, cloudy skies and rocky mountains. And was that a goat that Nobu could see over there?

Mountains rimmed the horizon like a picket fence of solid rock. The grass was soft and rustled with each gentle breeze.

Supposedly each of Aincrad's 100 floors had a distinct personality, but because Kayaba refused to add digital technology or magic, you kinda ran out of ideas after the first 20 or so floors. Every 3 or so floors seemed to be rehashing the same idea, milking it for all its worth. Yeah, sure Kayaba changed the layout and enemies and maybe added a tree here or there. But they still felt the same.

Of course, each layer also got harder and harder. And as Asuna had mentioned before, it wasn't at a steady rate.

So, here Nobu was, simply whistling along as they marched in lines and their respective formations before Asuna held her hand up in a fist. Glancing around the rest of the guys, Nobu noticed that they had stopped in front of a large stair case. Okay. Sure. Why not?

Again, Asuna's loud and bossy voice rung out, "If any of you would like to back out, now is the time. This is a no-crystal zone we're heading into."

Not a single movement for anyone. Shrugging, Asuna opened both of the doors with her arms and gestured for them to go in with a sweeping motion of her hands. "This is where you guys are headed. Take point."

"Wait, what?" Protests and confusion came out from the newbies, as Asuna wore a thin line on her lips.

"What, did you expect us to hold your hand with every step? We will interfere if necessary, but unless we see an immediate threat, we shall not intervene." This stopped all chatter and talking at once.

She was a good public speaker, Nobu could give her that.

"If you would like, you can prepare your crystals. But note that if you do teleport out you immediately fail the test. Those who manage to reach the end of this dungeon shall reap the rewards at the end and be immediately inducted into the clearers, effective as of tomorrow. You have my word on behalf of the Knights of the Blood Oath."

Light murmuring broke out again. "You can't be serious?"

"Should we take that chance?"

"No, let's bail! We didn't prepare for this!"

"We've already come this far. Besides, if we need we can always tap out."

"This dungeon does look pretty hard. If we're going in first, you're taking point."

Nobu shrugged and sighed. He'd be going in. [Fuurinkazan] would be going in. He knew that for sure. They weren't afraid of no stinkin' dungeon.

Klein immediately rose and grinned around at his guild. "Well, this mightn't have been what we signed up for, but I'll take it! Who's with me?" A cheer erupted from the 7 men, turning heads and drawing curious looks.

"Well, those guys seem enthusiastic. Maybe we should do it."

"Yeah, let's give it a go!" With that came other respective war cries and shouts of confidence. Like an out-of-order Mexican wave. Soon, everyone was on their feet and rearing to go.

Asuna glanced around with a raised eyebrow. _Alright. This is a first. No one backing out at the start, huh?_

[Fuurinkazan] boldly stepped forward. Or rather, Klein did and the others followed considering he was the leader. And with a grin on his face, Klein descended into the darkness, dragging his guild with him.

About 5 minutes into walking down the stairs, Nobu felt something poke him in the back gently. Unsheathing his knife in a swift movement, he turned around and stopped the blade in front of someone's neck. The entire guild also stopped dead in their tracks, turned around and drew their weapons to back up their comrade.

"Argo? Oh, for god's sake. Don't scare me like that!" Nobu breathed a sigh of relief as a bead of sweat dropped off Argo's face. That was close.

Argo clutched her short sword firmly and muttered out a weak apology. "Sorry, Nobu. Didn't mean to surprise you."

"It's alright. Come on, let's keep moving."

"Oi! What's going on down there? You guys alright in front?" That sounded like Asuna from the back.

"Yeah, we're good. False alarm." From that moment on, Argo started to drift closer to the [Fuurinkazan] before essentially merging and walking alongside them. It got to the point where she was literally walking next to Nobu and they casually chatted at the back to pass the time.

"Oi, lovebirds! Keep it down, we gotta' be aware of everything in here!" Whispered Klein annoyingly.

"Oh, come on, Klein. This place has probably already been cleared out by the others. Besides, I can't hear anything and my listening skill is maxed out!"

As if waiting for that specific sentence, a roar rang out from bellow the stair well. It was hoarse and echoing off the stone walls. The torches flickered and sputtered in their holds. Everyone stopped and formed a circle, facing back to back.

"Ah. Nevermind. We'll stop talking." They continued their journey in silence, but moving at a slower pace than before. They didn't want to meet the source of that roar in this narrow of a space otherwise they'd hack each other to bits.

Finally, they reached the bottom of the staircase. Klein grabbed a torch from its hold and apprehensively took a step forward. Dale picked up a stone from the ground and threw it a good 20 metres in front.

Nothing. "Oi, what do you guys see down there?" Not Asuna this time, it was masculine.

Probably some random guild member. "Nothing much, an empty corridor. You guys get down here first and we can regroup!"

They waited at the bottom of the stair well as the rest of the guilds filed in one by one. Thank god the passage widened to the breadth of a decent-sized freeway. Otherwise they'd have no space. The larger guilds fanned out to the side and began to line up. Nobu noticed they had the majority of men wielding rectangular shields that were as tall as they were and some form of a polearm whether it be a spear or a pike or a halberd.

"Fellow Phantom Spears! Formation number 8!" Came out a stern voice from somewhere inside the neat rows of perhaps 25 people? Maybe 30?

What happened next was actually really cool. The men on the front, sides and behind stuck out their shields to form a defensive wall, like a fence. Sliding their polearms in between the gaps of their shields, they looked like someone stuck toothpicks into a square cookie cutter. The guys in the middle of the newly-arranged shield perimeter placed their shields facing the ceiling, covering them and the men on the sides from the top.

Nobu recognised this as an ancient Roman defensive position called the Tortoise formation, for obvious reasons. Thanks to his European heritage, plus his years of studying in America, he remembered studying Roman warfare and this kind of manoeuvre. But he didn't remember the part where they slide the polearms in the corners. Normally they would use this to simply advance forward, not attack anything. This meant that all the men could have two hands on their shields instead of one, focusing on making a good defence as opposed to having a mediocre defence and a mediocre attack. Besides, if their shields were locked tightly, how could they do that? Taking a closer look at the men on the sides, he noticed a small part of the shield chipped off the edge in the top right-hand corner. A hole about the size of an orange. No, wait. The shield was crafted this way.

It was small, a small hole that was wide enough… for a shaft of a polearm to slide through. Haha. Very funny [The Phantom Blades]. Alright. Good job on that one. But what about the guys on top? Shouldn't they have holes in the corners of their shields?

Turning his neck, he got a glimpse of the formation from above because all the soldiers were crouching down. What he noticed was that the shields on top didn't have any gaps. But then that means they must have specially arranged the soldiers to walk in specific rows and patterns. No wonder they took so long to get organised.

Such leadership and tactics. It was gonna be difficult to top that kind of technique and polish.

Truly, a unit worthy of rivalling those under Caesar's own command!

Yeah, okay. The [Fuurinkazan] didn't have that kind of formation. But we did have brutal tenacity and the skill of samurais! Well, everyone but Nobu did at least. Oh, wow. The [Blazing Warriors] have seemingly created a formation for themselves.

Well, if [The Phantom Blades] were mimicking Ancient Rome, the [Blazing Warriors] were doing the opposite by mimicking Ancient Greece.

The phalanx. What a sight to behold.

Each man had a significantly large round shield covering the left side of the person next to them. With their weapon of choice slid into the gap between the top gap of the shields, like a chain of shields, it allowed better sight and flexibility when compared to the rigidness of the Tortoise formation. However, it did mean the man on the very left had his left side exposed. Plus, it wasn't as tight as the Tortoise meaning more room for enemies to break apart the formation. But, nothing's perfect.

Seeing such high-level players use such advanced tactics, Nobu begun to feel an inkling of doubt worm into his heart. The other smaller guilds even had their own little plans of attacking and methodologies. They had prepared like professionals.

In the [Fuurinkazan]'s defence, samurai combat was more akin to one on one. And when it came to boss fighting, you don't wanna be stuck in the slow-moving Tortoise or the phalanx where it's difficult to turn around to face a different angle. But that sense of safety in numbers wasn't present for the [Fuurinkazan] either. Welp. In a bit of a tactical pickle there.

Oh well, they'll make do. They always do.

"Klein, do you want me to check it out?" Nobu volunteered from the back. This was essentially his job. Plus, with a special trick up his sleeve, he was bound to get back in one piece.

"I dunno, kid. This is a pretty advanced dungeon. I don't want you going it alone."

"Nah, I'll be fine. Besides, I got this." He lifts out a glass vial filled with a transparent blue liquid. It moves around and reflects the flickering flame of the torch.

"What's that?" Asked Klein curiously.

"Invisibility potion. Got it from a friend with 'connections'." With this comment, he gave a sly wink to Argo who turned away to conceal her smirk.

"Woah, nifty! Alright, if it works, it's all yours." Klein didn't bother hiding his approval in his voice before stepping aside for Nobu to sprint ahead.

With a nod, he uncorked the vial and skulled the potion down. It seeped through his neck and felt like it was flowing through his veins. Starting at his feet, he vanished, bit by bit fading away before he was literally undetectable.

"Nob-Nob? You still there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine! I'll catch you guys later!" And with that, he dashed off like an Olympic sprinter. The only trace of him leaving were the sounds of footsteps echoing in the cave walls.

"So, do we wait for him to come back?" Asked a man from the [Blazing Warriors].

"Yeah, I suppose. Might as well. I mean, if we go after him there wouldn't be a point to sending him out in first place, right?" No one was gonna argue with that logic. Besides, they had just walked about 20 minutes' worth of stairs. They were fit, mind you but no one is exempt from the anguish of walking down stairs.

The guilds all broke formation before settling down and starting up fires to light up the cold, dark cave whilst Nobu scouted ahead.

Asuna eventually walked over to Klein as the guards set up a defensive perimeter. They got a long nicely, making the occasional chit-chat to politely pass the time. The rest of the guild was catching a quick kip or checking on their equipment levels.

Meanwhile, Nobu was eagerly enjoying sprinting through the cave at an amazing speed. He felt free. Even though there was no wind, the air movement felt like a cool current of wind. It was amazing to think that an area so deep underground had so much oxygen. Normally in caves, there'd be nothing to breathe, but the air felt the same as if they were on the surface. Maybe Kayaba wasn't that much of a dick after all.

The pitter patter of his steps was the only source of sound around and from what Nobu could hear, there wasn't anything in front of him for a good 30 metres. So, what made that roar?

Suddenly, he quickly put on the brakes and skidded to a halt in front of a wall. A dead end. Now what?

Oh, wait. Nevermind. It's just an intersection. Hehe. Nobu risked a peek around both corners and still didn't find anything. Just empty corridors.

No point in going back, there's nothing to report. He'll just send Klein and the gang a message for them to come down here.

'Guys, I can't really see or hear any enemies down this way, so feel free to come and join the party! But when you get to a T-section, stop there. I'll have already gone ahead by then, so you guys set up what you need to.'

"Alright, how do I decide which way to go?" He found his foot tapping against the floor like gunfire, tap, tap, tap, tap. Come on, make a decision. Which way? Left? Yeah, why not?

Walking softly, as opposed to sprinting in case of traps and what not, he turned the corner to hear something _click_ underneath him.

Uh oh.

From the right side of his eye, he could see an axe head ramped up attached to a chain. Coming right at him from the side. At about 50 cm apart, he turned around to face it head on. Unfortunately, there was no time to simply move to the side or dodge. So, he foolishly put his hands up in an attempt to block. This was gonna hurt.

40 centimetres. Was this really the best course of action? 30 centimetres. No time, can't change now! 20 centimetres. Shit, he's probably gonna lose a hand.

 _Phwoof_. The axe head passed right through him without him even feeling it. All he could feel was the movement of the air.

Woah. Oh, right. His [Phase] ability. All good, let's keep going!

Actually, he should probably tell Klein about this.

'Trap with pressure plate on the left-hand side of the intersection as you turn the corner. Be wary of it.'

Klein feverishly tapped out a quick response. 'Good work. Seen anything yet? Argo volunteered to go scout out the right side. I think you've got a bit of an admirer!'

Nobu silently promised he would punch out several teeth of Klein's mouth.

'Nothing on this side. Also, you may wanna arrange an appointment for the dentist when I come back.'

Stepping forward, he walked through the seemingly endless corridor before finding himself at a door. Seriously? The boss room of the dungeon already and not a single enemy? Either this place has been cleaned out or something's at play here.

Sending a quick-fire message to Asuna, 'Between friends, has this dungeon already been cleared out?'

'No, you guys were sent in to be a trial run. Why? Is there nothing around?'

'I'll come back with a report. Tell the guilds to wait for me at the intersection.'

'We're here already. Make your way back now. By the way, you ever considered becoming a scout?'

Chuckling at that, Nobu sprinted down the endless, dark corridor.

Klein looked up as quick but light footsteps came their way. Drawing his sword, he silently gestured for his guild to follow his lead. "Get ready, we don't know what could be coming around."

They slowly formed a line around the entrance to the left corridor before Nobu walked through, panting and gasping for air. "Whew. I swear I just ran a marathon. No joke."

Klein and the rest of the gang sheathed their weapons away before giving him a pat on the back.

"Alrighty, honourable scout! What did ya' see in that corridor?"

Nobu sat down on the ground, huffing and puffing. "Nothing much. This dungeon hasn't been cleared either, because I found a hidden room still containing some Col. And as far as I know, this dungeon doesn't have a reset function. Maybe there's one if we beat the boss, but that hasn't happened. The doors still have their locks, so clearly no one's actually been in there. I don't know if that side is actually the boss room, I didn't break the lock in case of traps or whatever. So, in conclusion that whole side could be a dud. Another thing, the locks on that side require keys. I analysed them with my [Lock picking] skill. It's impossible to force them or break them. Solid titanium, so that won't work. My theory is that the right side contains the keys to use on the left. That's why there were no monsters on the left. The boss is enough to compensate for all the monsters on the right."

All the while, Asuna nodded and slowly drank all this info in. This was good data, Nobu was good at reconnaissance. Looks like she'll have to pull some strings to try and get him in the scouters. He would no doubt be invaluable.

As if it were rehearsed, Argo turned the corner not even fazed and glanced around. "Oh, Nobsy's back!" Giving him a happy smile, Argo's face turned serious before looking at Asuna.

"Alright, so that side is flooded with monsters. I used my invisibility potion to get past them all, it seems as if there's some sort of chest or item at the end that they're guarding. The first layers of monsters are just lookouts, units of about 3 or 4. Then their formations get a bit more complex. I saw support type units, tank types and a lot of infantry. We can expect a lot of resistance a few hundred metres in. It's similar to a horde mode, where you pelt the players with wave after wave of enemies with increasing difficulty. My proposal, send in the Fuurinkazan to deal with the early stages then use either of the bigger guilds to smash down on the larger waves."

Wow. Nobu never realised how good that Argo would be at this. I mean, he knew she was a stickler for detail but she had also come up with her own strategy and model to deal with the situation. Nice work. Even in the dim torch light, Nobu saw her in a new way. What was this feeling? He wasn't used to looking at Argo like this. It was respect.

Never thought he'd feel that for Argo.

Quickly, everyone stood up and mobilised themselves into whatever formation they needed. Like military units, they all stood ready for action, towering over the threat they were walking into.

Asuna and her guard brought up the rear, hopefully preparing for nothing, but rarely did tryouts not go sideways. A cheer erupted from all the guilds as they would finally get their hands on something to kill.

"Fuurinkazan! Move out!" The men in red quickly paced themselves and moved in synchronisation.

The enemies stood no chance against something nearly twice their size.

Slice, hack, sword skill. That was all it took to simply walk past the enemy's defences.

Nobu often found himself again, running rings around the units trying to draw out their attention whilst the others moved in for the kill. His robe flapped around, blinding enemies as they tried to see past the black cloth that camouflaged quite nicely against the dark stone walls.

"[Spin Dash]!" Gripping his sword in a normal grip, he lunged forward, before slowing mid-air and spinning in circles through with his knife to act a bit like a saw blade. 1, 2, 3, 4 and finally 5 hits. He was like a sideways Sonic the Hedgehog. The green bar slid down into the red before Nobu simply threw his dagger into the still standing enemy.

As he disappeared into a thousand triangles, Nobu flicked his wrist before [The Gakushuu] shot back into his hands. It was a nifty little unique skill called [Weapon Recall]. Actually, it came around at about the same time that he received [Dark Harbinger] but he didn't notice it. So, one day he was scrolling through his inventory to do some arranging until he got bored and began flicking through his skills because he liked gloating and feeling good about himself.

But, hey. Who doesn't like bragging and feeling smug?

So, he's sitting there in the Fuurinkazan guild house scrolling through before realising he had 29 instead of 28 skills. Combing down his list, he spots [Weapon Recall]. Ok, this could be interesting.

' _The player has the ability to at any moment willingly force his equipped weapon to return to his hand. Given to the player with the best dexterity.'_ So, this was when he began to smirk and feel all high and mighty.

Anyway, back to the battle at hand. "Alright, [The Phantom Blades]! Move out!"

As the larger guild and another smaller guild began to go ahead, Fuurinkazan and the rest of the guilds managed to catch a breather after easily slipping past countless unit after unit. The swooshing of swords and clang of metals clashing against one another indicated that they were already, but Nobu wasn't worried. It Argo's intel was up to scratch, and it rarely wasn't, they'd have no trouble cutting them down.

About 20 minutes later, they had reached what was presumably the field boss room. This door had no locks, compared to the one that Nobu had scouted out. It was a solid brown door consisting of dark mahogany wood with the grain going upwards. What seemed like circles from afar but turned out to be elegantly carved dragons upon further inspection adorned the wood.

"Well, we're here." And as all the candidates filed into the hallway, Nobu prepared his weaponry for his first clearer level field boss. Dunno what it was. But judging from the door designs, it was most likely some kind of wyvern or serpent. A dragon maybe, but for a field boss that would be most improbable.

Slowly, but surely, Klein walked up to the front and used both of his hands to force the door aside. Unfortunately for him, it wouldn't budge. Not a single centimetre. What was this door made out of? Alright, let's get the rest of the gang on this. After a good 20 minutes of getting the rest of the guild with the exception of Nobu, because he was a lazy dipshit…. I mean conserving his energy, Nobu shoved his guildmates panting bodies on the floor aside and turned the handle.

Pushing back, he realised that this door didn't even open inwards. It opened outwards. He swung it easily by merely pulling on the handle and gestured mockingly at his friends. Seriously, these guys were idiots to a fault.

"You guys are so stupid." Was all Argo muttered whilst facepalming at the antics of the 6 guys.

Nobu offered his arm towards Argo in a gentlemanly fashion. Argo politely linked her own and they walked into the field boss room together.

 **A/N: Quick update, and it's somewhat longer than my normal chapters. Eh, I just got bored over the weekend. So, you're welcome?**

 **Next chapter will be the field and dungeon boss.**

 **Anyway, feel free to rate and review.**

 **Cheers,  
SecondComing02**


	7. Chapter 7: Induction

**Sword Art Online: The Ghost**

 _Chapter 7: Induction_

A bloodcurdling scream pierced the entire room and sent half of the guilds quivering to their knees. The sound entered their ears and shook up their brains in ways that sent pain ringing throughout their body. And this was from the cry of a _field boss_? Statistically speaking, field bosses were about 3 times as weak as their corresponding floor boss.

Nobu rubbed his temple for a good few seconds as Argo helped him up. She didn't seem to be phased in the slightest. "How-how did you resist that, Argo?"

"These cat ears aren't just for show. They contain a high-level defence metal that absorbs high or low frequency or extremely loud frequency vibrations and dispels them." Wow, high tech. Kinda.

Anyway, Nobu twirled his Tanto in his hands a few times to get the feeling back into his hands. [Fuurinkazan] also struggled to collect themselves. Interestingly, [The Phantom Blades] were complete fine, still huddled in the tortoise formation. At least, they seemed alright from the outside. The metal must have quivered quite a bit and made a racket, but that doesn't matter now.

What does matter is finding the boss and sticking his knife in its mouth so it can shut the hell up.

He didn't have to wait long for the former of that, though. Something white and sleek circled around the roof of the dungeon, a bit like a plane flying in a holding pattern. It circled around and around until some members of the other guilds became a bit dizzy. Aha. That's its play. Either you watch until you become extremely dizzy, or look away and risk it pouncing down on you at any opportunity you give it.

Kayaba, you goddamn fox.

Nobu took a chance and looked away for a good second whilst his head tried to rearrange itself. But his vision kept spinning until the moment when the creature leapt down from the sky, smashing straight down into the floor leaving a wide hole, narrowly missing the [Fuurinkazan]. It was all over in a few seconds of him freefalling, going under and around the platform before moving back into the sky.

Nobu took the time that the creature was flying back into the air to glance around at the terrain they were fighting on. It was a grey rocky platform that looked a bit like a plate. Circular in size, it had about a diameter of 150 metres approximately. There was a thin stretch of the same substance between the door and the main platform, a bit like a bridge or an isthmus in mid-air.

Risking a glance over the side, it seemed that there were several layers of similar substance underneath. Like an inverted wedding cake of stone. And like a wedding cake, each layer got smaller than the last. Most likely the creature would destroy the upper layers if they were too slow and confine them to the lower and smaller layers.

Some sort of ramp on the side, obviously leading down to the next layer and then the next. Interesting design Kayaba. So, we have to kill it quick and fast. However, there was something else at play.

Yes, the upper layer was larger, but there must be something else at play here. Come on, what's your angle, Kayaba?

Stepping on the edge of the platform, he curb-stomped the side only to notice that the floor he was standing on was rather thin. Yes, it was sturdy enough to support the most of them, but he saw how easily the boss broke through the surface. Nobu was willing to bet 2 or 3 floors down may take a couple of hits for even the boss.

Speaking of the boss, Nobu looked back up to see it performing its regular spinning routine. Oh, for fucks sake, was it just going to be an hour of this shit?

They didn't have anything that could reach that far, nor did they have the speed to attack it on the way down.

This guy or thing was dangerous. Anyone with half a brain could see that. This wasn't really a matter of combat, as opposed to puzzle solving. Nobu zoomed in thanks to his improved [Combat Eyesight] skill. He was too fast to discern the name, but Nobu could see only 4 medium sized health bars. So, he was an offensive style boss. This also complimented the arena nicely. His attacking style would make the best out of the battlefield.

This is a tricky little dilemma we have here.

"Oi, guys! I have a plan!" He waved feverishly at the [Fuurinkazan] to come over whilst yelling over to [The Phantom Blades], "You guys occupy the boss! Don't go close to the edge or else you'll get forced over by it!"

As the men in red all wallowed over, he gathered them all in one spot and huddled them together like a football team. They whispered in hush tones, arguing feverishly against the clock as [The Phantom Blades] took hit after hit. Though, that was not to say they were struggling. Nobu didn't know what those shields were made out of, but they were certainly formidable.

Thanks to their tight formation, the boss eventually gave up on trying to attack from above and lowered itself down to the point where it was visible. And boy, what a creature it was. Staggering over them, moving around in elegant circles was a pure white dragon. Not a European dragon with large wings and horns and a fat belly. An Asian dragon that typically brings about good luck, but in this case, it was merely an obstacle to get past. Its cylindrical body glittered with scales and shimmered in the faded torchlight. What a beautiful thing. Finally, Nobu was able to make out the name of [The Dragon King of The West]. Hm, where had Nobu heard that before?

It wasn't Japanese, but definitely a myth of Eastern origin. What other major culture celebrated dragons? Oh, right. Duh. Nobu, you're an idiot. It's Chinese. He didn't have the time to facepalm before it struck [The Phantom Blades] once again. Alright, buddy. Back off a little, why don't you?

Okay, so now we know it's origin. How did it die again? Oh, wait. It's a god. It can't die.

For fucks sake, Kayaba. As soon as he took another glimpse towards [The Phantom Blades], he noticed that they had changed their formation. They couldn't afford to be a sitting duck forever. Another thing that he had noticed was that the ground around them had a lot of holes inside it. So, clearly the dragon had decided on making them fall through the ground as it realised it had no chance against ancient roman tactics. Smart dragon. But luckily for us, [The Phantom Blades] weren't dumb enough for that. They managed to disassemble their formation and spread out into small units of about 4 or 5. Alright. But this unfortunately meant that the dragon would have an easier time smashing down the floor.

And sure enough, the dragon begun to pick away at the uninhabited spots of the first floor. Alright. "Everyone! Down to the second floor!"

Nods and assenting grunts resulted in many running towards the thin stairwell on the side of the platform.

"Let's go! Come on!" As Nobu was the closest, he assisted in escorting everyone down to the second floor. From his glimpsing over the side, he could only see about 4 floors. He didn't know if they had more. But they were already on the second floor and hadn't done an inkling of damage. This was going to be a difficult fight.

Wait a minute… Fighting? It's a field boss. That means it won't drop any quest-related items because it isn't related to a specific quest. But if the dragon doesn't drop anything… Then it's not a boss. It's a guard. A guard for the keys. And now it was scared. It realised that we were getting closer and closer to working out how to beat it. So, it became desperate and began to smash away at the floors. Interesting.

Nobu suddenly dashed off towards the other side of the platform, wanting to reach the other side before the dragon noticed anything suspicious.

With one final smash, the whole of the first floor just disintegrated into little polygons to reveal the ceiling. Panicked gasps and stifled screams rang out, but Nobu couldn't focus on that just yet.

Argo on the other hand, was focused on everything but the boss. Where the hell had Nobu gone? He couldn't have fallen off; his health bar was still in the green. So, he was okay, but where is he?

Argo also sprinted off towards the other staircase leading downwards, despite the protests and cries of her fellow pseudo-clearers. With her [Acrobatics] skill, she instead of climbing merely leapt over the side and swung around using the edge of the platform as a ledge before landing on the 3rd floor. Okay, now where are you Nobu?

By now the diameter of the ring was most likely 50 metres maximum. Argo didn't stop there. She repeated the same process to flip down onto the next level only to find Nobu crouching in front of a large wooden chest. This must be where the keys are held! Good work, Nobsing!

Nobu couldn't break through this damn lock, no matter how hard he tried! His lock picks simply busted themselves one after the other. His [Lock Picking] skill wasn't even anywhere near high enough.

"Argo! Bust through this, now!" A crash indicated the dragon striking. They probably wouldn't have much time. He could see the fragments of the shattered floor falling all around him as he tried to bust this damn lock.

"Got it!" Immediately, she swept out a solid gold lock pick and began to listen as the tongues and inner components of the large steel lock jingled and clattered. To the outside world, it was practically silent. But for Argo, each sound was like a drum right next to her ear. Finally, after some tweaking, it opened with a large _click_.

' _You have obtained: 1x Pure Bronze Key.'_ Yes, that'll do. The grooves and chips on the key would fit nicely within the lock. This is it. This is for the boss room.

Nobu grabbed Argo's arm and they both sprinted up the stair well. By that point, Asuna and her guard had sprinted into the dungeon and were attempted to hold off the dragon by themselves as the others attempted to regroup. Blue flashes and lights lit up the sky as Asuna went to work on the boss.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Only 1 of its health bars had been depleted and it was only getting faster and stronger. Nobu yelled towards the others, "Use your crystals to teleport back to the intersection! We've got the key! Go!"

Asuna and the other K.O.B soldiers had apparently heard this as well. Together they fought whilst screaming, "Go! Get the hell outta' here!"

Flash after flash of teleporting player brought relief to Nobu as he himself raised a crystal. But at that point, the dragon struck again and hit the floor so hard it shook the entire structure. Instead of going back up, it circled around the floor once and swooped underneath them.

Uh oh. If it realised that the key was missing, most likely it would turn into its Berserk form and begin to smash at the entire structure.

Asuna and the others nodded towards Argo and Nobu as they too raised their crystals.

Nobu and Argo didn't see them flash out before they too disappeared from the boss room.

Back at the intersection, Nobu teleported on top of Argo and slammed into her by accident.

 _What a soft landing_ , thought Nobu before hearing a familiar voice groan from underneath.

"Ow…" Oh. Whoops. That was awkward. He stood up, dusted himself off and pretended like nothing happened. Argo on the other hand, was furious. "Nobu! You clumsy piece of-" Nobu decided to mentally delete that next part from his memory otherwise it would have severe mental repercussions. Plus, the embarrassment from looking around and realising that all the other members were staring at him wasn't something he needed in his life.

So, he simply blurred those next few moments out. Hey, that's a cool looking rock…

Finally, Argo calmed down and drew in a deep breath. It was at this point none other than Yuuki Asuna spoke up. "Well, it's apparent that this was not an appropriate test for you all. I apologise on behalf of the clearers for putting you through that ordeal." Murmurs broke out of agreement. Nobu couldn't blame them. They were expecting some dungeon crawling, but nothing like that.

"Unfortunately, since technically none of you actually managed to clear the boss, none of you will be progressing."

Stunned silence.

Then cries and howls of protest. Once again, Nobu could understand why. But he could also see where Asuna was coming from. This was just a field boss. And it wasn't even a field boss of the boss room. If that was what they were up against, well they wouldn't stand a chance against the floor boss. And the one of the next level. Who knew what could be beyond the doors of the dungeon boss? All Nobu could say was that they were severely underprepared.

Asuna merely waited with discomfort on her face. It pained her to say that. There had been some worthy moments of certain guilds that would definitely merit joining the clearers. However, failure to kill the boss meant failure to join the front lines. That was the deal. No exceptions.

But Asuna did have her eye on some people. 2 people in particular. Nobu and Argo. Those two were the only two that managed to figure out the strategy of the boss. Asuna overheard their little mid-game huddle from the sidelines and was impressed by Nobu's ability to discern its attack pattern. And Argo had already garnered a reputation for herself, but seeing her scout ahead and come back with strengths and weaknesses of the enemies ahead, detailed analysis as well as a plan? Already she could be better than half of the current scouting guild. That was a talent for reconnaissance if Asuna had ever seen one.

However, how would she get these two into the front lines? She couldn't get them into the clearers that went into the boss rooms, they wouldn't be strong enough. And they aren't eligible for being a tactician even if they had just proven their tactical prowess. None of the other guild leaders and members would stand for it. There was one other alleyway she could attempt to get them into.

"You are all dismissed. Please remember that there will be a trial next month as well. I hope to see you all again and promote you all to the front lines."

And with that, the guilds all packed up and left with anger, bitterness and sorrow dangling from their hearts.

The last to leave were the [Fuurinkazan] who were still sighing over their failure.

"Well, even if that was a dodgy run, I'm afraid we didn't make it boys. We'll get 'em next time."

"Actually… Klein, can I borrow both Nobu and Argo?" Klein turned around with a simple defeated shrug.

"Well, technically, Argo isn't part of my guild so she can do what she wants but Nobu, yeah sure."

With a nod, the two followed her as she walked away from Nobu's guild mates and began to murmur secretively, "I'm sorry about today. I didn't know it was going to be this difficult."

If she had turned around, she would've seen the steel resolve and anger within both of their eyes. Luckily for her sanity, she didn't.

"That boss was much higher levelled than we anticipated. But unfortunately, the bosses seem to be getting harder and harder with every floor and not at a steady rate. We've got a lot of work to do."

This news shocked Argo. "So, you guys didn't know about the floor? You were using us as guinea pigs? You-" Nobu chose wisely to block this part out as well.

Asuna did have the decency to look shamefully at the ground in apology whilst Argo let her feelings out. Nobu already knew this, so he didn't react as violently. Still, he was a bit miffed at being duped.

"Anyway, why did you call us here? You didn't need to apologise to us personally. You already did that back there."

As they walked deeper into a dense jungle, she found themselves an open clearing, similar to the one with the rock in the skill quest for [Martial Arts].

Sighing, Asuna sat on the ground, flopping her butt down on the rocky floor.

"Well, as I said, you guys aren't eligible for the clearing guild. However, there is one other option for you two. And only you two." She mentioned that last bit whilst looking at Nobu to counter his sudden mouth opening, clearly trying to argue for [Fuurinkazan] as well.

"Okay… What are you playing at here, Asuna?" Asked Argo curiously. Suddenly, her anger seemed to quench itself. That was fast.

"I can get you two in the scouting group."

Silence. Then, suddenly Nobu perks up. Chuckling. "Seriously. That's the best you had to offer?"

Asuna at this point merely looks confused. "What are you talking about? Being in the scouting group is a great honour. It's almost as important as being in the clearers. I can't get you into the clearers or put you in the clearing leadership division, but I can pull some strings to guarantee you a spot in this place."

"Seriously, Asuna? Come on, I thought you were gonna have me as a reserve or something. I would've settled for that." Poison creeped into his words. If he couldn't have it all, he'd have none of it. Screw the scouting group. It's made up of a bunch of low level, low skill players who can't do shit.

At least, that was the stereotype. It wasn't as if he resented scouting. He was quite good at that. It was merely the social stigma around scouting. Okay, sure it was important. But after they scouted the boss rooms and floors, they simply went home and gave each other pats on the backs whilst the real workers would just go in and do the heavy lifting.

Such a job created resentment towards the scouting group. Nobu didn't really see the logic behind it. After all, he knew 2 people within the scouting group and they were alright people. But unfortunately, because the clearing group was much larger than the scouts, there wasn't much they could do about stopping the rumours and the spread of resentment. Assholes.

If anything, the scouts had a more dangerous job. They had to go in blind, with no intel or advantage. Plus, they had to pray it wasn't a no-crystal zone. Otherwise, well… They'd either have to find a way out themselves or die. There wasn't a chance of fighting the boss, because why would you have tanks and front liners on a reconnaissance mission? Such a burden wasn't as easily lifted as people imagined.

Argo meanwhile, sat in silence pondering the option. Her reputation alone would help bolster the scouting group's credibility. But would it be enough? Probably not, considering how deep it ran. But at least she'd be doing something to contribute towards the clearers apart from information dealing which she mostly received from the scouting group anyway. So, this way, she'd be able to confirm the info herself.

Do the pros outweigh the cons? Well, she'd only know one way for sure.

"I'll do it." Well, she sure knew how to get an audience's attention.

"You'll what?" Cried Nobu. "You can't be serious, you know how much people dislike the scouting group?"

"Yeah, but maybe I can flip the tables. Someone as renowned as me, yeah. I think that could do the trick. You know what I do to people who get in my way." That last sentence left a hardened gleam in her eye, like she was a predator hunting who spotted an easy kill.

At this point, Asuna turned around to Nobu. "See, if Argo's on your side, no one'll dare to stand up to you!" Nobu sighed in response. He hated peer pressure.

Ten seconds of silence as Nobu played scenario after scenario in his head. Would it be worth it? Who would support him, who would leave him?

"Alright. If Argo's doing it, I'll do it. I only didn't wanna do it because everyone'd hate me." Truth was, he was only worried about [Fuurinkazan]'s reaction. He didn't give a damn about anyone else. But if they didn't accept him, who would?

Nobu stood up and turned around to walk back. His next words were emotionless, neutral in an attempt to hide his anxiety. "When do we start?"

"Meet us tomorrow on this floor and you'll get your first task, okay?" Asuna was very relieved. Thank god that they found new replacements. The last raid had unfortunately left a gap in the group which she was sure these two would fill very capably. They didn't need to know that, though. Considering their skills, they'd have no troubles regarding scouting going forward.

Asuna meanwhile, nodded towards Argo in gratitude whilst mouthing a 'Thank you' before teleporting out. "Teleport, home base!" With that, she phased out of the clearing they were sitting in.

Argo tugged at Nobu's robe before offering her hand impatiently. "A gentleman always helps up a lady in need."

"You're such a baby, you know that?" Nobu smiled as he pulled her to his feet. She was always doing this kinda stuff.

Argo pouted and punched his arm forcefully. Ow! To be fair, she did have the [Martial Arts] skill.

Rubbing it softly, he sent a playful glare her way. Stupid cat-lady. Are all women this complicated? His mother and sister were never like this…

But as if it would make up for it somehow, she gently patted it a few times. "There, there. You're more delicate than me, Nob-nob." And this time, he gave her a scowl. Wow, how considerate, thought Nobu.

But together they walked back to where [Fuurinkazan] already were. Instead, he found no one. Maybe they had already left and left him a message? Yeah. There it was.

'Yo, Nob-nob. We already left because you guys were talking for a while. It's nearly sundown, come back and we'll have some dinner. Tomorrow's a day off. All the guys are a bit moody, so no pressure to come back quickly. Bit of a bummer, but what can you do?'

Gritting his teeth, Nobu barely managed to type out a reply. How do you respond to that? Poor guys, they'll only hate him after this message. Actually, no. They don't deserve a message. He'll do it in person.

Argo read the message over her shoulder, because she's the nicest and most respectable person in the world. "Yikes. Tough times, huh? Come on, I'll break the news with you. Hopefully they'll hate you not as much."

Thanks, Argo. Even if it's for something like this which you really have no business or part of, but Nobu'll take any help he can get with this situation.

They both raised their crystals and departed the 59th floor.

As they re-emerged in front of the wooden door, the two slowly walked inside, not anxious to have what was most likely gonna be a very awkward conversation.

"Hey guys… I'm back?" Huh. No response. Weird. They're probably all asleep.

"Yo, Nob-nob? Is that you? Come on, I'm in here." That sounded like it came from the lounge. Walking over, sure enough, it was Klein sitting on the couch. Drinking something. Nobu didn't really notice at that moment.

Because it was dark, Klein didn't see his twitching fingers or his shaking breaths. "Hey, uh… So, bad luck today, right? Hehe…"

"Yeah." Pulling a massive sigh, he sat straight up and placed his cup on the table. "What were you talking to Asuna about?"

"Well… We were, like… Hmm." At that point, words failed him. He himself sat down in an effort to buy time to think how to tell him about his new position. Argo also sat down and Klein merely acknowledged her with a simple nod of the head.

"Come on, spit it out. I'm dying over here." Evidently not, by the fatigue in his voice, but he did seem interested.

Nobu started to speak, but couldn't get any words out. At that point, Argo placed a hand on his reassuringly and nodded. "We're in the scouting group." She boldly stated.

Fuck me, Argo. You've got bigger balls than Nobu does.

Klein reacted exactly how Nobu thought he would and spat out whatever he was drinking before breathing quite heavily. Uh-oh. Here we go…

He stood up passively, and took a step in his direction before he was standing right about Nobu.

Klein raised his hand up before Argo also stood up, ready to protect her friend.

What came next shook Nobu to his core.

Klein knelt down and gave him a massive hug.

He couldn't feel have of his body, with how tightly Klein was squeezing Nobu, but that didn't matter. What did matter was the fact that he didn't have a katana sticking through his ribs and was instead being praised for getting in. Maybe. Dunno. Maybe this is Klein's way of having a mental breakdown. Who knows?

Klein simply turned his head towards the sky and laughed. "We got one! Yeah! Woohoo! WE FREAKIN' GOT NOBUSAKI INTO THE CLEARING GUILDS! YEAH! GO US, UH HUH!" His little celebration caused a riot upstairs as they all rushed to see what the hell was going on downstairs. At that moment, they all came down to see Nobu blushing, Argo laughing herself to death whilst taking screenshots and Klein doing some horrible dance moves. Seriously, if his sword broke, he could just dance and kill enemies through them laughing to death.

But after he calmed down and took a very deep breather, the guys began congratulating and whooping around the house.

No one slept that night. They stayed up and wished Nobu good luck as well as Argo. Breaking out a few drinks, they toasted and made jokes before congratulating and giving them all a good pat on the back. But eventually, they all retired to their bedrooms. The toll of staying up as well as the adrenaline from the day before was beginning to wear off. And as the sun rose once again to mark the commencing of a new day, Nobu found himself glad that he was part of the [Fuurinkazan]. These guys were straight up good blokes. They were sad if they lost, but happy for you if you won. That's probably one of the best qualities human beings can have.

And these guys have it in spades.

Argo and Nobu both left that impromptu celebration significantly more red-faced and exhausted. But they didn't have time for fatigue or weakness. They were in the clearing guild now.

"Shall we, milady?" Typical condescending Nobu.

"We shall." The light of the blue crystals faded as Klein smiled from the window.

 **A/n: 3 chapters, 3 days. I'm on fire now!**

 **Next chapter probably won't be up for a good week, I've got tests and shit coming up, but if I find the time I'll try and slide one in.**

 **Probably won't until the weekend, I'll be honest, but eh. I'm a high-school student, we all know the struggle that is a French assignment. Unless you don't do French. Stupid education.**

 **Feel free to R &R.**

 **Cheers,  
SecondComing02**


	8. Chapter 8: Risk and Reward

**Sword Art Online: The Ghost**

 _Chapter 8: Risk and Reward_

Grunting, Nobu hissed as a bead of sweat dripped down from his forehead. He slashed again and again, activating one knife skill after the other. [Dark Harbinger]'s durability kept taking hit after hit, but not enough for Nobu to be worried about it.

The reptilian creature, that looked a bit like a roman legionnaire with a lizard head, tail and green arms and legs with a shield and very makeshift set of armour which was apparently offering better protection that it looked, hissed as well as it readied its sword once again. Despite its health being in the red, it didn't seem that bothered with its current condition.

Nobu quickly jumped 10 feet in the air, before slamming his knife down into the forehead of the creature, landing on its forehead and jumping back up in the air to swiftly deliver a vicious axe kick to the forehead. Destruction. The creature didn't have the time to scream before it exploded into a million pieces.

'Congratulations! You earned 5603 Col and 133 EXP!' That was a decent amount for something as weak as that. His eyes drifted to the other 3 scouts who were also quickly mopping up their combatants. Argo threw a sleek steel throwing tack, lodging it into the enemy's forehead resulting in the enemy exploding and the tack falling to the floor. "Yes! I recovered it!"

"Alright, cat woman. Good for you." Argo immediately stopped smiling and scowled at the nickname, whilst bending over to pick it up.

She swiftly marched over, punched him in the chest and wore a smug grin as Nobu hunched over in surprise. "Ow…" He managed to weakly sputter out.

"You… Are, oh crap… Extremely, heugh… Violent." Argo shrugs as the other two scouts walk over with surprised looks on their faces.

"Seriously, Nobu? Provoking the Rat? Yeah, your life expectancy just dropped by about 50% ya twit."

They all shared a good laugh at Nobu's expense. His favourite kind. But as she stood up straight, he sheathed his knife and closed his eyes, trying to hear for anything else.

"Okay, I think that's it for this floor. We'll pack up for today. I've made a map of about 40% of this floor, as well as a direct path to the boss room. But I didn't get close enough. Unfortunately, my invisibility potion wore off before I could get a closer look. So, maybe we'll get the clearers to just cut the patrols down. It'll be good grinding for them as well."

"I've found 3 different grinding hotspots and an interesting looking structure. Here." He quickly accessed his own menu before they all simultaneously received a peculiar image. It was blurry, but one could make out the faint outlines of what seemed to be a row of pillars.

"Looked like some sort of ancient temple. Couldn't get past, there's a level 103 field boss in the way. But I'll debrief with the top guilds in the next meeting which is in, ugh." He stopped before checking his clock. "About 50 minutes. So, perfect timing. Good work, team. We'll go back with the reports. Now, who'll be coming with me?" Oh dear. Not again. Strategy meetings.

As is tradition within the scouting guild, they sorted it out the only way they knew how. With 'paper, scissors, rock.' Being Nobu and Argo, they quickly ganged up on the other scout, Sanjo, resulting in him staring dejectedly at the floor, wondering why life was so cruel.

Quickly, they waved their goodbyes and teleported back to headquarters.

They reappeared within a field of flowers, the same one where he had met Asuna and heard a loud feminine voice squabbling away behind a tree. They both looked at one another and shrugged.

Yeah, we'll check it out.

Turns out, Asuna and Kirito were having a heated discussion about something. Well, mostly Asuna. Kirito was simply staring out to the sky, looking kinda moody. That was weird. He practically never looked moody around Asuna. It was either frustration or joy that he displayed around her. Dunno why though.

Honestly, Argo reckoned they should just get together already. I mean, they've already got the arguing part down.

With the tact of a master diplomat, Nobu stepped out from behind the tree and asked, "Hiya, lovebirds. How ya doin'?"

Okay, so maybe he could've worded that a bit better. But hey, no time like the present to embarrass your extremely close friends in front of another extremely close friend.

He ended up getting punched in the face.

These guys were extremely violent. Maybe Nobu oughta' find new extremely close friends considering he'd probably get killed by his current ones before any monster could get close to him.

Argo, was on the other hand, staring at the scene from afar, wondering what they were bickering about.

It was no secret that Asuna secretly fostered a somewhat repressed affection for Kirito.

They had already enjoyed a few tender moments, according to Asuna and apparently already had dinner together one evening. If only Nobu was as organised as that. She remembered how bad he was at that kinda thing.

But, they were happy with one another. Even if they wouldn't admit it, they liked each other. If not in a romantic way, in a brother/sister manner. Argo wasn't sure on which one yet. Most likely the former, but you never knew with those two.

They clearly possessed something that she didn't. A person that really cared about them. Beneath the shouting, arguments and constant quarrelling, there was pure and genuine affection. And Argo was willing to bet that they'd jump into hell with a smile on their faces for one another.

Sure, it was a part of their character to help out those in need. She'd constantly hear Asuna mutter, "For those who died trying, and for those who can't." A cute motto. Bit like Nobu's "Win by the skill of your blade and the speed of your feet." Great minds think alike, right? But there was definitely something more as to why they cared about each other so much.

Argo would often find herself staring enviously at Asuna. She's got so much going for her. Fame, fortune, friends. She has the beauty of a goddess, a goal, the skill and dedication to get there. Why the fuck is she so damn perfect? No single human being should be able to possess that! I mean, look at that result! You get the perfect woman.

Everyone knew that the 'Lightning Flash' was dangerous as a warrior. But she was even more terrifying as an enemy.

Maybe that's what Argo was missing. Something to drive her. At this point, realistically, she was doing this because Nobu was doing it. Maybe she needed to look at the bigger picture. After all, Asuna, Kii-bou and Nobu were.

All of them constantly talked about their ideologies and ultimate endgame. What a noble thing to do.

Nah, she'd worry about that later.

Glancing sideways, Argo noticed that the sun was about to set. "Oi, Nobteaser, come on. You gotta' go home and I gotta' attend a business deal."

Sighing, Nobu walked over and waved back at the lovey-dovey couple.

"See ya, around guys. We're gonna leave now. And remember, use protection!" Kirito didn't have the time to unsheathe his sword before Nobu's teleport crystal as well as his body exploded.

Back at the Fuurinkazan guild house, the rest of the gang had also returned from their questing.

"Boy, being on the front lines sure is hard, isn't it Dale?" Asked Klein whilst stretching loudly.

"Yeah. Thank god, we finally made it there. Probably the most challenging thing I've ever done in my life." Oh, please. You guys made it 1 month after Nobu did. Even if it was due to some back-channel work.

3 months had passed ever since Nobu first got into the scouting group. 3 months of gruelling, bone breaking work had gone by like a snap of the fingers. He could just as easily remember his very first day in Aincrad. But then again, you don't forget things like that. Ever.

Dale and Klein both managed to pick themselves up and walked in to the backyard for their daily training. Tryhards.

Actually, despite all of the levelling and grinding they performed, Nobu now outclassed the entire guild thanks to his extra month on the front lines. He hadn't revealed this to the guys, because he didn't know how they'd take it. But the stats don't lie. He was rocking a cool 132, whilst Klein who was the furthest apart from him was sitting at around 123.

Boys, got some catching up to do.

Skill point wise, Nobu had just poured all of his skill points into knife skills and arbitrary skills such as [Cooking], [Lock Picking], [Perfect Parry], [Knife Mastery] and a whole other tree of skills that brought along such goodies as [Berserk Hit] which amplified the power of his next attack by 300%.

Problem was, it had alongside it a 5-hour cooldown. 5 hours. Wow. Just a tad excessive, Kayaba?

Since his runs only lasted about 3 hours, he'd just use it on the first enemy he found and wait for it to charge up. Not like he needed it for his profession anyway. Majority of the things he fights are low-levelled grunts that he could breeze past.

The higher levelled monsters, no thank you. That's clearer territory you're stepping on there.

He didn't notice Argo's face go sour as she glanced at a message. "Damn it." She cursed under her breath, but Nobu's [Hearing] skill was way too high to let that slip past him.

"What's up?" Turning around before flopping back on a recliner in the living room.

"Deal got called off. Turns out one of the guys had a duel planned at the same time. Twit."

She too plopped herself down on the seat next to him and looked blankly at the ceiling. "I have nothing to do, this evening. Yay."

Nobu at that point sat up. "Well, how about we go hunt for something? I've had my eye on a new shield for a while, one made specifically for someone like me. I'll throw in your overtime fee if that's what it takes?"

Hmm… Argo considered the pros and cons of going with Nobu to find this item.

On the one hand, it would just be them two, doing what they do best. Finding and gathering things. They'd probably have a good time together, enjoying one another's company.

On the other hand, Argo didn't really know if she had the energy for it. But she didn't have any plans for tomorrow either, so that'd just fill gaps in her schedule.

"Alright. But instead of the overtime fee, I'll help you if you help me."

He sat up straight and looked at her curiously. "Alright. What are you after?"

"I need you to help me find a place to live." Seriously? Was that it? Easy as pie. Nobu knew a few places of the top of his head that she'd be content with.

Argo at this point rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly and looked down at the floor, a self-conscious half smile graced her lips. _Seriously, she hasn't got a house? She's been sleeping in inns for the entire time?_

"Done deal. Alright, let's go." At this, she let out a huge yawn.

"Actually, can we do it tomorrow? I'm feeling knackered out. Come on, we'll do it early in the morning. I don't have any plans anyway."

"Alright." With that, Nobu waved her over and showed her towards the guest room. Small, but cosy. Besides, she was only here for a single night. Not like it really mattered. Argo waved goodnight as Nobu shut the door behind him.

As soon as he heard the door shut, he felt something grip at his chest. Deep in his chest. Hmm. Odd.

Rubbing it off, he walked into the backyard to meditate as he passed Klein and Dale, all sweaty and dirty from training.

"Oi! You guys smell horrible! Shower, now!" In the narrow corridor, he pressed himself up against the wall and ensured his nose was far away as possible when they walked past.

Sliding the back door open once again, he sat down cross-legged on the porch and took off all of his armour. Then, he brought his hands to his knees and closed his eyes as the stars twinkled and sparkled.

Nobu finally stopped meditating at the crack of dawn. Not even a bit tired from doing all that, even if he stayed up for a good few hours. Actually, if anything he felt more refreshed and energised than a good night's sleep. It's probably come back to bite him in the ass, though.

Doesn't matter now. Right now, he needed to hunt for a shield.

Rapping on Argo's door, he heard a muffled, "I'm coming, Nobbling! Gimme a minute!" She opened the door herself, dressed in her garments that she wore the night before and walked out to where Nobu was standing.

"Alright, where are we going?"

"Not even gonna have breakfast? Heh. Well if you're really that dedicated, it's on the 59th floor."

Argo winced a bit at that statement.

"Yeah, I know. Not exactly our favourite floor, but hey. We're like twice as powerful as we were before. Come on."

Argo followed him out the door and attempted to keep up with Nobu's significantly larger stride. Stupid height difference. Just because he's got long legs and Argo doesn't he's like twice as fast as she is.

As they warped back into the lazy pastures and cloudy skies of the 59th floor, they walked through a few towns before Argo began to notice where they were going.

"Hey, Nobu. Where exactly is this shield?"

"It's in that dungeon we couldn't clear. You know, the one with the dragon boss, thing."

Argo stopped in her tracks. "What? We can't go back there! I thought you were going to just try and find it off a wild mob! That Wind Lord or whatever it's called still gives me the shivers!"

Nobu sighed. He was afraid this was gonna happen. Argo was fortunately, or unfortunately depending on the situation, very good at playing it safe. In a second, she could get cold feet like that.

"Come on, we were like 40 levels weaker back then! Besides, we don't even have to go through the field boss, you still have the key, don't you?"

At this Argo jolted. Oh yeah. She never did get rid of that. It was just lazily sitting under 'Quest Items,' waiting for the one day where it would be used.

She had constantly thought about just throwing it away, or auctioning it. But Nobu insisted on keeping it for one day. And now she knew why he was so goddamn stubborn.

You are a manipulative asshole, Nobu.

She sighed in exasperation as Nobu strode ahead and shrugged. She did agree to this, even if she didn't read the fine print. Then again, she always blamed that on the person signing the contract, so to quit now would be kinda hypocritical.

At least they'd only have to fight the boss this time. None of that grinding through the field unit bullshit.

She skipped alongside Nobu as they descended into the very familiar staircase.

As she walked up to the front door, a smell of charcoal and burning wood reached her nose. Hmm. Odd. Okay, so that means the enemy clearly has some fire ability. She also noticed that the door was slightly charred on the edges where most likely the dragon had used a breath attack on the front door.

Fire breath? Dragon field boss? Definitely a dragon inside.

She slid the massive bronze key in with both hands, listening to the _click, click, click_ of the locks opening as the door opened by itself to reveal a large chamber. Hmm… Nobu quickly skulled down a few potions, nothing too fancy, just a strength, speed and defence boost of 15% each and dashed into the middle of the room, Argo not far behind.

On instinct, their eyes moved to the top of the room. That was where the last boss had appeared from, after all. This time, since it was a boss, they could expect some fighting as opposed to the puzzle solving crap in the field boss room. Stupid Kayaba.

A familiar roar screamed down from the top as Nobu quickly pushed his hands to his ears and successfully muffled majority of the impact. It shook him back a bit, through sheer force and he had to take a step to recover before he stood up tall once again. Twirling [Dark Harbinger], he watched as Argo drew [Elemental Talon], an elegantly crafted silver falchion with 4 sapphires studded in the handle, all either blue, green, red or yellow. Pwetty. But he had no time to go into an in-depth analysis of the blade as the dragon finally revealed itself, hovering down to about 20 metres in the air. The soft torchlight of the braziers and scattered torch poles showed a creation exactly similar to that of the field boss. A white wyvern, of immense length. Actually no, this dragon seemed a little bit longer.

And maybe a bit scarier. Its eyes seemed colder than its weaker counterpart. More calculating, more intelligent. If it weren't for the situation, Nobu felt as if he could have an intelligible conversation with it. Well, if he could speak dragon.

But nevertheless, he assumed an attack pose and waited patiently for it to strike.

Thing was, the boss seemed to be doing the same thing.

A few minutes flew by, as they stood in a deadlock, trying to analyse and not give up anything that may give the other an advantage. The dragon floated in mid-air, staring down on Nobu as if to say, _go on, this could be interesting…_ whilst Nobu looked up in the same way David must have looked up to Goliath. With determination and not a shred of fear in his face.

Argo however, was actually the first one to make a move. With a scream, she activated a sword skill and Nobu watched in surprise as Argo's falchion glowed orange before she swiped with all her effort and landed just in front of the dragon.

With satisfaction, Argo watched as the first of 4 health bars fell down to about 60%. Wow, that was quite impressive for a single shot. Nobu'd have to learn that skill later.

Strangely enough, the dragon didn't even seem fazed. It just remained still, hovering gently above the ground. What? Do something! The fact that it was just there scared Nobu than any attack it could have done. Indifference meant he had something up his sleeve. A secret weapon, a trick to pull out at the last minute. _What could it be?_

An hour later, the stood back to back, panting and huffing and puffing. So apparently, that was just a standard dragon boss. Nothing special. Nobu sheathed his knife as the crackling torches sputtered around him. The ground was singed and burnt all over, thanks to the dragon's immense fire-breath attack. But they otherwise looked unharmed and quickly consumed their healing supplies with a sizable amount left. A worthy challenger for the duo.

"You know, Nobu. I've been thinking. Are we really gonna stay in the scouting group for long?" Typical Argo, always acting ambitiously.

"I dunno. I mean, it is better than we thought. We aren't as hated as much as we expected, plus we get some decent pay." He flicks through his rewards of the boss as Argo sheathes her own falchion.

'Congratulations! You received: 20x [Dragon Fang], 133x [Fire Dragon Hide], 1x [Pentablade]. Now this was an interesting shield… It wasn't your typical circular shield. As the name implied, it was a pentagon of dragon-y goodness. The front wasn't made of wood or steel, but dragon skin. The coarse material felt warm as Nobu rubbed his fingers over it. Must represent the dragon's element of fire. Perfectly balanced, it was. Actually, it was more of an oversized 5-edged shuriken. Made from dragon skin. At the end of each vertex was a dragon fang facing opposite the centre of the shield, so if Nobu spun it, it would essentially be the world's most dangerous spinning top.

What a beautiful thing, you are. Nobu, being the impulsive person he is, sprinted to one end of the cavern and threw it against the opposite wall with all of his might. It flew straight into the marble wall and embedded about half of itself deep inside. Wow. What a sight! Using [Weapon Recall], it flew straight back into his hand. Thank god that he didn't touch any of the fangs on the corners, or else he'd be in trouble. From the centre to each vertex was about 25 centimetres, so the shield was slightly bigger than his old one, which he wasn't reluctant to replace. Also, the badass fangs were about 10 cm long themselves, so that did help. Yeah, he'd have to learn how to not cut himself on the fangs, but he could do that later.

Argo had looked over at his shoulder in slight envy. Such a beautifully crafted thing. She poked it with a finger, expecting a harsh metallic feel, but it felt soft and bendy, like skin. Aside from the coarseness of the skin, she pushed it down slightly and watched as the place she imprinted her finger inflated again.

Glancing at the statistics, she snuck a glance at the ability, [Soft Skin]. It read: ' _Can stop or trap attacks/projectiles within the material of the shield. Has a 15% chance of occurring each hit.'_

No fair! How come Nobu got such a cool piece of equipment! Plus, it gave him a 20% speed increase! Why does he get all the cool toys… He's got his [Dark Harbinger], [Robe of Silence] and now the [Pentablade]. Argo slinked into a corner and crossed her arms whilst _hmph_ ing alone.

Nobu was too busy adjusting his inventory to notice.

Boys and their toys…

She clapped and rubbed her hands to get Nobu's attention before yelling at the chamber, "Alright! Time for you to get me a place to live! Yippee!" She skipped around the dungeon, ecstatic at her current situation. She had a decent amount of Col stored up in the back, she just didn't know when or where to use it. And since Nobu said he did, she'd be right on track!

"Oh yeah, about that… I don't actually know any spots. Hehe…" Argo stopped at that.

"What?"

Silence as Nobu closed his inventory and raised both of his hands in defence. "Yeah… Hehe… I don't… Actually, know anywhere?"

Sneaking a hand behind his back, he summoned a teleport crystal from his inventory.

Argo wore a passive-aggressive tone on her next statement. "I see. Very well. That's too bad."

Argo drew her knife and missed completely as Nobu warped out to the nearest town.

"NOBU-FUCKING-SAKI!"

 **A/N: Short, crappy chapter. Yay. You'll probably find this trend of good chapters and one really shitty one for filler to be a regular thing. Soz, guys.**

 **Anyway, next chapter is the Christmas arc which I glossed over in my last few chapters. I've been getting a lot of PMs about the name of Nobu's knife. Yes, it is a reference to Ass. Class. Another great anime which I reckon y'all should watch. BTW, it's not actually called Ass. Class, it's called Assassination Classroom. I know there's one guy who's gonna just look up Ass. Class and get some super suss search result… Anyway, that's gonna happen. Few good ideas in my head, but it's the weekend over here, so expect maybe another chapter by Sunday?**

 **I'm tryin' to pump out chapters for my new PJO story, give that a check out please? It's doing much better than this story statistics wise for the first chapter. That's probably because PJO fics are like 10x as popular as SAO fics tho. Bit of a shame, really. Oh well. Also, thinking of starting up a Food Wars fic, whaddya guys reckon?**

 **See ya around, and R &R.**

 **Cheers,  
SecondComing02**


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